Japan's Tohoku Electric Power said on Wednesday it has won initial regulatory approval to restart a reactor at its Onagawa power plant, more than 8 years after it was damaged in the earthquake and tsunami that caused the Fukushima disaster.
Tohoku Electric said in a statement it has received a first green light from Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority to restart the No. 2 reactor at Onagawa, subject to a public consultation period.
Onagawa was the closest among Japan's nuclear stations to the epicentre of the magnitude-9 quake in March 2011, which triggered a tsunami that killed nearly 20,000 people, as well as causing the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
Further approvals will be required before the restart, along with the consent of local authorities, which is not guaranteed.