Japan races to get nuclear reactors running again

About 12 tons of radioactive water has leaked at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant while the Japanese government is racing to get two nuclear reactors of Kansai Electric Power Company running again by next month.

Tokyo Electric Power Co said the leak was found early on Thursday from a pipe attached to a temporary decontamination system, and the water had already gone through some of the cleansing process. The operator of the crippled nuclear facility also said that some of the polluted water might have flowed into the Pacific Ocean.

A TEPCO spokesman confirmed the leak had been plugged and the utility was probing the cause of the accident and how much, if any, water flowed into the Pacific.

Accident casts doubt

The new accident touched a nerve among the public at a time when Japan's government is working to convince its people that atomic power is vital.

Thursday's news conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura underscored that there was no legal requirement for local communities to sign off on the restarts.

"However, we will go to the localities to explain new (safety) standards," he told reporters.

According to Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper, Yoshihiko Noda, Japan's prime minister and three cabinet ministers were scheduled to meet also on Thursday to discuss the possible restarts of the No 3 and No 4 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co's Ohi plant in Fukui prefecture, western Japan - a region dubbed the "nuclear arcade" for the string of atomic plants that dot its coast.

Trade Minister Yukio Edano, who holds the energy portfolio, could travel to Fukui as early as Sunday to seek local approval for the restarts, Asahi Shimbun said. If approved, the restarts would be the first since a huge earthquake and tsunami triggered the radiation crisis at TEPCO's Fukushima plant a year ago, which forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate.

Continuous closures

Nuclear power, long advertised as safe and cheap, provided almost 30 percent of Japan's electricity before the crisis. But now all but one of Japan's 54 reactors are offline, mainly for maintenance. The last reactor will shut down on May 5.

And the Ohi nuclear power plant under current discussion, which is 350 kilometers from Tokyo, was once shut down in last July after a technician fault in its No 1 reactor.

Concerns over a power crunch when electricity demand peaks in the summer has been set against public fears about safety since Fukushima, the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years.

"They want to avoid setting a precedent of the country operating without nuclear power because it will create a huge barrier in terms of restarts," said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University's Tokyo campus.

"People will question why we need it," he said.

The Japanese government is crafting a new energy mix formula, with options for atomic power ranging from 0 to 35 percent of electricity by 2030 against an earlier target of more than half.

Edano has said he wants to gain understanding from communities near the reactors, including those such as Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto City, which are not hosts to atomic plants but are close enough to be at risk of radiation from a big accident.

The relevant local governments, including Fukui Prefectural, have called for provisional safety guidelines as one of the requirements for restarts.

Nishikawa, the governor of Fukui, has also said he wants to see the results of a government-sponsored probe of the Fukushima crisis. But the report is not due out until summer.

Whether the reactor restarts can go ahead before the last reactor shuts down, however, remains in doubt.

China Daily-Reuters