Update Extra: Sendai #1 restart is Japan’s top news story.
Sendai unit #1 was successfully restarted this morning. In precise sequence, 32 control rods were first nudged from their fully-inserted positions at 10:30am (Japan Time), right on schedule and without incident. Initial criticality is expected to occur at about 11pm (Japan Time). While reactor restarts are almost always a mere blip on the local news media radar, All 50 major news outlets in Japan have made the Sendai restart their leading news story. Rather than summarize all the news articles, we will provide a representative list news links for the issues the Press is focusing on. Please be advised, the below is but a sampling.
a. The uneventful restart itself – http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150811_17.html — http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002348909 — http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2015/08/11/photos-japan-restarts-nuclear-reactor-amid-protests/ — http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150811p2a00m0na017000c.html — http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201508110066
b. About 200 people protest the restart – http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150811_11.html — http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002349504 — http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002349504 — http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/japan-ends-nuclear-shutdown-four-years-after-fukushima
And, some news outlets have added stories focusing on the difficult road that lies ahead for restarting nukes at stations other than Sendai, such as… http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002348925 — http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150811_20.html
