In Germany, the Fukushima disaster led to the shutdown of nuclear power plants. In Japan, however, the country's largest reactor is now being started up again.
The operator of the nuclear power plant, Tepco, received the green light at the end of last year after extensive safety checks. On Monday (April 15), TEPCO said it began putting the fuel elements back into the reactors. There are seven of these in total. By 2030, electricity from nuclear power is expected to make up a significantly larger share - 22 percent is planned - of the Japanese energy mix, as the energy agency reports. In Germany, there is still a heated debate in this country about whether shutting down the power plants was the right decision. But in Japan, people are already making a fuss about it. The decision to phase out nuclear power plants was made after the Fukushima nuclear disaster shocked the entire world in 2011. Large parts of the region around the Fukushima plant are still uninhabitable.