A nuclear reactor in northeastern
For the No. 2 unit of the Onagawa nuclear plant in Miyagi Prefecture to restart, winning consent from local government leaders is the last remaining step needed after it cleared a national safety screening in February.
Miyagi Gov.
By doing so, he would be the first governor of a disaster-hit prefecture to give the green light to the restart of a nuclear reactor.
The other heads of local governments whose consent is essential are the mayors of the city of Ishinomaki and the town of Onagawa where the plant operated by
Of them, Ishinomaki Mayor
After the quake triggered one of the world's worst nuclear crises in neighboring Fukushima Prefecture and caused all of
Murai has come to believe residents will support his stance after the prefectural assembly adopted a plea seeking his consent at a panel meeting Tuesday and is set to approve it at a plenary session next week, the officials said.
"When the plenary session shows its stance, I will make a decision upon hearing the opinions of mayors of cities, towns and villages within the prefecture," Murai said.
The 825,000-kilowatt reactor won the approval of the
At the Onagawa complex, all three reactors -- the same boiling water reactors as in Fukushima -- shut down when a massive quake and a 13-meter tsunami hit northeastern
However, the plant's emergency cooling system did not fail and there was no meltdown of the type that occurred at three of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant of
Other boiling water reactors at
==Kyodo
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