The world's largest nuclear power plant resumed part of its operations on Saturday, two years after it was shut down following a strong earthquake off the Japanese coast, the operator said.
One of seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, located 300 kilometres (185 miles) northwest of Tokyo, started test operations, said operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO).
The company earlier said it would shift to full power generation at the reactor after up to 50 days of test runs.
"But it is still uncertain when we can resume operations at the remaining six reactors," Akemi Otsuki, a TEPCO spokeswoman, told AFP.
TEPCO decided on the move after the municipal governments gave the formal go-ahead, company officials said.
The sprawling 8,200-megawatt plant has been dormant since July 2007 when a quake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), killing 15 people and injuring thousands.
Public concern mounted when television footage showed white smoke coming from an electric transformer, while the operator said radioactive water had leaked into the ocean during the tremor.
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