Japan Restarts Nuclear Reactor 13 Years After Massive Earthquake [Video]

Japan has restarted a nuclear reactor at the Onagawa plant after a massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami led to damage at nearby Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The No. 2 reactor was put back online Tuesday and is expected to start generating power in early November, operator Tohoku Electric Power Co. said. This marks the first time the reactor, located just 62 miles north of Fukushima, has been operational since the incident and follows significant safety upgrades.

What Happened to the Reactor

The reactor is one of the three at the Onagawa plant, north of the Fukushima Daiichi plant where three reactors melted following a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, releasing large amounts of radiation.

The Onagawa reactor’s resilience during the 2011 crisis, when a 13-meter tsunami hit but did not disable its critical cooling systems, has positioned it as a symbol of Japan’s ongoing recovery and engineering ingenuity.

In the aftermath of …