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LequteMan
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Japan is to start the process of switching off its last working nuclear reactor Sunday for a scheduled inspection with no restart in sight due to public hostility towards atomic power.
Kansai Electric Power will gradually take offline the No. 4 reactor at its Oi nuclear plant in Fukui prefecture in western Japan.
The work is scheduled to start Sunday evening, with the reactor expected to stop power generation after several hours before coming to a complete stop early Monday, according to the utility.
The No. 3 reactor had been halted a couple of weeks ago.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has openly supported the use of nuclear energy, but the public has remained largely opposed to it for fears of possible serious accidents
The move will leave Japan without atomic energy for the second time since the Fukushima crisis in March 2011. Radiation had spread over homes and farmland in a large area of northern Japan when the massive tsunami swamped nuclear cooling systems. No one was officially reported dead but thousands of people were evacuated and many areas are expected to be inhabitable for decades.
.Last year, government officials and utilities had voiced concerns that a major blackout could be looming as Japan relied heavily on nuclear energy sources.
The government then gave approval for Kansai Electric to restart No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at the Oi plant while other reactors remain idle.
Japan has turned to pricey fossil-fuel alternatives to fill the gap left by the shutdown of atomic plants.
Utilities have raised power fees to cover increased fuel costs for thermal plants while reactors remain offline.
