After 15 years, Japan has restarted a reactor at the world's largest nuclear plant, which was shut down after the 2011 Fukushima power plant disaster.
Reactor no.6 at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant located northwest of Tokyo was restarted on Wednesday, January 21, after a one-day delay due to an alarm malfunction.
This is the largest installment in Japan's nuclear power reboot, and its seventh reactor is not expected to come back on until 2030, while the remaining five could be decommissioned.
Japan, which had always relied on energy imports, was an early adopter of nuclear power; however, it came to a halt in 2011 when one of the worst nuclear disasters occurred.
Triggered by the most powerful earthquake recorded in Japan, the meltdown in the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi led to radioactive leakage.
Local communities were forced to evacuate, and many still have not returned despite official assurances that it was safe to do so.
Critics say the plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), was not prepared, and the response from them and the government was not well-coordinated.
