It appears likely Miyagi Gov. Yoshihiro Murai will agree to restart Onagawa nuclear power plant's No. 2 reactor, by Tohoku Electric Power Co., which stretches between Onagawa and Ishinomaki in the prefecture.
The prefectural assembly's committee on environmental welfare adopted in a majority vote a petition demanding the reactivation of the nuclear reactor on Tuesday. As it is almost certain the petition will be adopted also at the assembly's general session on Oct. 22, the governor determined prefectural residents' understanding about the restart has been obtained.
The Onagawa plant will be the first nuclear power plant located in areas devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake whose prefectural governor will have agreed to reactivate.
The No. 2 reactor passed the Nuclear Regulation Authority's safety inspections in February, which is a precondition for the reactivation.
In March, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshi Kajiyama asked Murai to be understanding to the central government's policy for the reactivation.
Onagawa's town assembly and the city assembly of Ishinomaki adopted petitions mainly from business organizations requesting the restart in September, and decided to agree to the reactivation as their capacities of municipal assemblies.
"I have sufficiently considered the will of the prefectural assembly, which represents the prefectural residents," Murai said at the prefectural assembly's general session on Sept. 23, indicating his stance of placing importance on the prefectural assembly's judgment.
After the prefectural assembly's session closed on Oct. 22, Murai plans to hear opinions by holding a meeting of municipal government heads as soon as possible.
Murai will then make a decision to agree to the reactivation after holding a trilateral meeting with Onagawa Mayor Yoshiaki Suda and Ishinomaki Mayor Hiroshi Kameyama. The governor will likely announce the decision by the end of this year.
Tohoku Electric Power Co. now implements works for safety measures, including constructing a 15 meters-high seawall, which will be 29 meters above sea level.
The reactor will be restarted at the end of fiscal 2022 or later, when the works are completed.
The No. 2 reactor of the Onagawa plant is the same type of boiling-water reactor as those at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., which caused a series of nuclear accidents in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
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