A Japanese nuclear reactor with an upgraded anti-tsunami wall was set to restart Tuesday in a region near the crippled Fukushima plant, according to its operator.
Japan shut down all of its 54 reactors after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, but has since brought 12 of 33 still operable units online — although none in eastern and northern regions.
Unit number two at the Onagawa plant in the northeastern Miyagi region, next to Fukushima prefecture, was to become the 13th on Tuesday, according to Tohoku Electric Power Company.
Japan has been turning back to nuclear power in order to cut emissions, reduce expensive imports of fossil fuels and meet energy demand for data centres for artificial intelligence (AI).
“Nuclear power, along with renewable energy, is an important decarbonised power source, and our policy is to make maximum use of it on condition that safety is ensured”, top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters on Tuesday.
The 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed around 18,000 people cut power lines and flooded backup generators at Fukushima Daiichi, sending three reactors into meltdown.
Safety and regulatory standards have been tightened since, and the Onagawa plant — cleared in 2020 to re-start — has increased the height of its anti-tsunami wall to 29 metres (95 feet) above sea level, one of the highest in Japan.
The reboot also marks the first time a boiling water reactor (BWR) — the same model used at Fukushima — will be brought back online since the meltdown.
