Japan set to restart world's biggest reactor

Plant closed 15 years ago after Fukushima

- KANTARO KOMIYA YUKA OBAYASHI KATYA GOLUBKOVA

Japan took the final step to allow the restart of the world's largest nuclear power plant yesterday as the region of Niigata voted to resume operations, a watershed moment in the country's return to nuclear energy nearly 15 years after the Fukushima disaster.

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, located about 220 km (136 miles) northwest of Tokyo, was among 54 reactors shut after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi plant in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Since then, Japan has restarted 14 of the 33 plants that remain operable, as it tries to wean itself off imported fossil fuels.

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa will be the first operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), which ran the doomed Fukushima plant. Yesterday, Niigata prefecture's assembly passed a vote of confidence on Niigata Governor Hideyo Hanazumi, who backed the restart last month, effectively allowing for the plant to begin operations again.

Ahead of the vote, around 300 protesters, mostly older people, holding banners reading 'No Nukes, 'We oppose the restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa' and 'Support Fukushima' gathered in front of the Niigata prefecture assembly in temperatures of 6 degrees Celsius (42.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

As the rally started, the mostly older crowd sang Furusato — a national song about connection to a birthplace, meaning 'homeland' in Japanese.