(Update 3) 1st East Japan Reactor Restarted since 2011 Fukushima Crisis

   Ishinomaki/Onagawa, Miyagi Pref., Oct. 30 (Jiji Press)--Tohoku Electric Power Co. restarted the No. 2 reactor at its Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture on Tuesday, making it the first reactor to come back online in eastern Japan since the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis.
   This is also the first restart since the nuclear crisis of a boiling water reactor, the type of reactors crippled at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 plant in Fukushima Prefecture, south of Miyagi, following the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11, 2011.
   "The restart of a nuclear plant in eastern Japan is extremely important," Japanese industry minister Yoji Muto told a press conference on the day.
   Tohoku Electric and TEPCO have relied on thermal power generation since halting their nuclear reactors following the Fukushima accident. As a result, their electricity rates are about 20 pct higher than those of Kansai Electric Power Co. and Kyushu Electric Power Co., which have restarted a total of 11 nuclear reactors.
   At 7 p.m. Tuesday, an official at the Onagawa plant's central control room counted down from three and flipped the switch to change the operational status of the No. 2 reactor, which reached criticality, or a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, at 12:12 a.m. Wednesday after the 137 control rods that suppress nuclear fission in the reactor were removed one by one.

(2024/10/30-01:02)