TOKYO, Aug 13 (KUNA) -- The operating rate at Japan's nuclear power plants reached 2.9 percent in July, marking the first growth on the month in eight months, the Nikkei business daily reported Monday, citing data from the industry body.
Operations resumed at two reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear plant in western Japan last month, pushing the utilization rate up from zero percent in June, according to the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan.
All of Japan's workable 50 commercial reactors remained offline in June, after last unit at Tomari nuclear plant in northern Japan was suspended in May for routine safety inspections to leav the country without nuclear power for the first time since 1970.
Such checks are required every 13 months, and public concerns about safety since the radiation accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011 had stopped any reactor from being restarted. But the government decided to restart the two idled nuclear reactors at the Oi plant early July in an effort to help alleviate possible power shortages this summer in areas served by the utility.
The Fukushima plant, located 230 km north of Tokyo, was badly hit by the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami that caused explosions, meltdowns and massive leaks of radioactive material as the world's worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe. (end) mk.rk KUNA 131148 Aug 12NNNN