World Bulletin / News Desk

Japan's nuclear regulator signed off on the basic safety of a reactor at a third nuclear plant on Wednesday, as the country inches toward rebooting its atomic industry more than four years after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

The decision will be a boost for operator Shikoku Electric Power Co, which relied on its sole Ikata nuclear power station in southwestern Japan for about 40 percent of its electricity output before the meltdowns at Fukushima led to the shutdown of all the country's reactors.

For the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, resuming nuclear power, which provided about a third of Japan's electricity supply before Fukushima, is key to lifting the economy out of two decades of anaemic growth.

At a regular meeting on Wednesday, the NRA's commissioners signed off on a provisional assessment that the Ikata reactor meets new design standards introduced after Fukushima. The decision will be open to public comment for about a month before being formalized.

Located about 700 kms (434 miles) west-southwest of Tokyo on Shikoku island, the Ikata No. 3 reactor started operations in 1994 and has a capacity of 890 megawatts.

The future of the Ikata plant's two other reactors, each with capacity of 566 megawatts, is unclear. One is almost 40 years old, which is the lifetime limit for reactors in Japan without a special extension that will be costly to achieve.

Two other nuclear plants operated by Kansai Electric Power and Kyushu Electric Power have passed through the first stage of regulatory checks.