Japan's nuclear power restart likely delayed until summer in blow to Abe's plans

Japan's plans to bring two of its idled reactors back online early this year have hit a hurdle as the plant's operator said Thursday it needs more time to submit safety papers to the country's nuclear watchdog.

Clearance for the No. 1 and 2 reactors to be brought back online at Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Sendai plant, in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima, was initially given in November, making the prefecture the first to gain such approval to restart its idled reactors since new safety regulations were introduced by the government after the 2011 crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The two reactors had provisionally met the security requirements in September last year and obtained a prefectural sign off thereafter, but in a blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plans to restart the nation's idled reactors at the earliest possible juncture, Kyushu Electric Power Co. said Thursday it needed more time to submit documents related to on-site operational checks and a new construction plan to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA).

According to local media, the utility said it plans to submit the outstanding construction-related documents by the end of this month, some two months later than originally scheduled, and said that the on-site checks could take at least one month if not longer.

In a meeting earlier Thursday with the NRA, Kyushu Electric Power Co. failed to say when the plant would be operational, but intimated that the delay could be "more than a few months."

Despite the official go-ahead having already been given, not all of the local residents in Satsumasendai city, which hosts the two reactors, approve of the restart, with a solid contingent adamant that the plant remains unsafe and that local prefectural officials should be ashamed of complying so easily to the central government's wishes, instead of prioritizing their own communities.

Among some of the arguments voiced against the restart is the fact that the Sendai plant is located in a seismically active region among numerous active volcanic sites, and concern is rife that if a nearby volcano erupts the nuclear plant's safety measures may be insufficient.

They highlighted, in addition, that Japan's nuclear watchdog must screen all safety requests and check new safety measures implemented by nuclear plant operators to meet the new regulations before greenlighting their restart.

They also demanded that evacuation plans, such as those developed to deal with an unprecedented volcanic eruption, be created by the local communities themselves and not required to be mandated by the NRA.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been a staunch supporter of bringing the nation's nuclear power stations back online.

As yet, all of Japan's 48 commercial reactors remain offline due to safety concerns and ongoing checks, though a weak yen, punctuated more so since the central bank here expanded its monetary easing program, forcing the currency lower versus its major counterparts, has continued to push up the price of Japan's fuel imports. Endi