93% of Japan's nuclear reactors offline

Tokyo Electric Power Company shut down a reactor in Niigata Prefecture, central Japan, on Wednesday for a regular inspection. Fifty of Japan''s 54 nuclear reactors, or 93 percent, are now out of service. The No.5 reactor of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant stopped operating on Wednesday morning. The plant''s No.6 reactor is now the only one providing power to the Tokyo metropolitan area, Japan''s NHK website reported. TEPCO''s nuclear plants in Fukushima Prefecture are all offline after last year''s accident at Fukushima Daiichi. TEPCO will boost the capacity of its thermal power plants and ask companies and households to voluntarily save electricity. The utility has submitted the results of its stress tests for the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant''s No.1 and No.7 reactors. The safety checks are a prerequisite for resuming their operation. But local authorities refuse to give the go-ahead to restart the reactors, saying the central government''s investigation of the Fukushima Daiichi accident is inadequate.(QNA)