Shimane Prefecture in western Japan has approved a plan to restart a nuclear reactor of the same type as those that suffered meltdowns at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power stations following the massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The approval for the 789-MW Shimane-2 nuclear plant in the prefectural capital of Matsue was announced by governor Tatsuya Maruyama in a prefectural assembly session, press reports in Japan said.

Owner and operator Chugoku Electric is seeking to restart the reactor in 2023 at the earliest. The plant began commercial operation in 1989, but has been offline since 2012. It is now likely to be the first boiling water reactor to be restarted in Japan since the Fukushima disaster – and the 10th to become fully operational in total.