Thousands at Japan PM’s office decry nuke restart
Jun 29, 2012, 2:41 PM
TOKYO (AP) – Thousands of people have protested outside the Japanese prime minister’s office before a nuclear reactor is restarted this weekend.
At least 10,000 protesters filled the street outside Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s office Friday, blocking traffic and chanting “No to restart!” as they held up banners with anti-nuclear slogans. The rally was the latest weekly protest there this month. Noda’s government recently approved restarting two reactors in western Japan.
One of them, Ohi No. 3 reactor, will be switched on Sunday for the first time since last year’s tsunami disaster triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.
All 50 of Japan’s commercial reactors are offline for maintenance or safety checks.
Noda’s government has pushed to bring some reactors online to avert power shortages during the summer.
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