Japan reactors to restart when safety assured: trade minister

Japan's nuclear reactors will be restarted once safety is confirmed and local communities give their approval, according to the country's new trade minister Yukio Edano.

He made no made no further comment on the likely timing for reactor restarts, which have been delayed by public concerns about nuclear safety in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi radiation crisis, threatening power shortages as more reactors go offline for inspections and maintenance.

He said that safety checks should be done thoroughly and in a way that is easy for local residents to understand.

"I think one purpose of conducting the stress tests is to make checks transparent and specific, and to explain the results in a way that's easy to understand," Edano said.

He said there was no room for politics in determining the safety of nuclear reactors, but he implied there should be flexibility in determining whether local residents have given consent to reactor restarts, calling for "comprehensive judgments."

Edano said he wanted to avoid mandatory reductions of power use in the winter, and hoped to achieve this by encouraging households and offices to conserve power. He said Japan should strive to become a society that does not depend on nuclear power, although he stopped short of calling for an eventual closure of all nuclear power plants.

Edano replaced Yoshio Hachiro, who resigned after only eight days as trade minister following gaffes related to the Fukushima plant.

The full story is available at Reuters.