Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2015 September 9 - 15 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Commercial operations start at Sendai NPP amid protests

Kyushu Electric Power Company on September 10 resumed commercial operations of the No.1 reactor at the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant (Kagoshima Pref.) while a protest action was taking place in front of the plant gate.

The restart of NPP commercial operations in Japan was the first in two years.

Protestors outside the plant shouted in unison, “Shut down the Sendai plant!” Matsuzaki Makoto, Japanese Communist Party member of the Kagoshima Prefectural Assembly, and Inoue Katsuhiro, JCP member of the Satsumasendai City Assembly, took part in this rally. The event organizer said, “The great majority of the local people as well as the general public throughout Japan are opposed to the resumption of operations of reactors at NPPs.”

They wanted to submit a written request seeking the holding of meetings with neighborhood residents regarding trouble with a condenser in the reactor which occurred just days before. The plant operator, however, refused to accept the request.

The power company brought the reactor back online on August 11 and achieved full capacity operation twenty days later. The utility is now planning to reactivate the No.2 reactor of the Sendai NPP in October.

Past related articles:
> Operation of problematic Sendai NPP should be stopped without delay [August 22, 2015]
> JCP Shii issues statement opposing restart of Sendai NPP [August 12, 2015]
> Municipalities near Sendai NPP demand public briefing sessions [July 26, 2015]