TOKYO: Japan will within weeks have no nuclear power for the first time in more than 40 years, after the trade minister said two reactors idled after the Fukushima disaster would not be back online before the last one currently operating is shut down.
Trade Minister Yukio Edano signalled it would take at least several weeks before the government, keen to avoid a power crunch, can give a final go-ahead to restarts, meaning Japan is set on May 6 to mark its first nuclear power-free day since 1970.
"If we thoroughly go through the procedure, it would be (on or) after May 6 even if we could restart them," Edano told a news conference, adding that whether they can actually be brought back online is still up to ongoing discussions.
The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, where a huge earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 triggered radiation leaks, has hammered public faith in nuclear power and prevented the restart of reactors shut down for regular maintenance checks, with all but one of 54 reactors now offline.
Nuclear power accounted for about 30 percent of Japan's electricity demand before the Fukushima crisis.
In discussing restarts of the No.3 and No.4 reactors at Kansai Electric's Ohi nuclear power plant, in western Japan, the first to clear the government's technical review on resilience against a severe event, Tokyo has said it wants local backing even though it is not legally required.
The hosts of the Ohi plant the governor of Fukui prefecture and mayor of Ohi town, some 360 km (225 miles) southwest of Tokyo told Edano on Saturday that some conditions should be met before they can make a decision.
These included a safety review by an expert panel formed by the prefecture and backing from areas neighbouring Fukui that are becoming increasingly vocal about possible radiation damage in the event of an accident at any of the 13 reactors in Fukui.
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