Kyushu Electric Power says Genkai nuclear power plant was switched back on in Japan's southern district of Higashimatsuura, Saga on Wednesday, less than one month after the facility automatically shut down following a safety alert.

 The reactor is expected to reach its normal level of power generation on Friday, a spokesman for the plant said.



This is the first reactor to resume operations since the massive earthquake and tsunami of March 11 sparked an atomic emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in the country's north eastern region.

The restart came as the operator of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima plant denied that signs of a new nuclear reaction at the stricken plant were a setback to recovery efforts there.


MOVING ON

Since the nuclear disaster struck in March, Japan's atomic industry has been struggling to overcome the scepticism of a public largely unwilling to allow operations to restart at dozens of stalled reactors nationwide.

Wednesday's restart at Genkai was seen as a boost to the industry, even though Kyushu Electric officials says the situation there is different from that at other suspended reactors, which have to undergo government-mandated stress tests.

The Genkai reactor was halted after an "abnormality" in its steam condensing unit emerged on October 4, Kyodo news reported, adding that Industry Minister Yukio Edano, who oversees the sector, had attributed the fault to "human error".

Saga Governor Yasushi Furukawa told reporters: "If the state made the judgment after a full examination, we'll accept it."

Before the disaster at Fukushima, Japan relied on nuclear power for around a third of its electricity, and has since had to ramp up its imports of thermal fuels to plug the supply gap as the number of active reactors dwindles.

A nationwide campaign to save energy over the summer is to continue over the winter, amid warnings of a shortfall that could be particularly acute in western Japan, which is more heavily dependent on nuclear power.

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