Tokyo, Oct 15 (IANS): Japan on Thursday reactivated its second reactor at the Sendai nuclear plant under stricter security regulations following the Fukushima disaster in 2011, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
The plant's operator Kyushu Electric Power restarted reactor number 2 around 10.30 a.m. and will take another few weeks to begin commercial operations, EFE news reported.
The move comes about two months after Sendai restarted its reactor number 1, the first one under the post-Fukushima rules, which the current government considers to be "the world's toughest".
The restarting of reactor number 1 ended nearly two years of nuclear blackout in Japan, the longest in the country since it began to produce atomic energy in 1966, following the Fukushima accident caused by an earthquake and a tsunami.
However, according to surveys, most Japanese have opposed to nuclear reactivation despite the stricter security regulations approved by Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) owing to fears of another accident.
Of the 43 nuclear reactors in operational conditions in the country, 25 have sought NRA supervision for future reactivation.