Anti-nuclear protesters on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to scrap all of Japan's nuclear plants and free the country from depending on nuclear power.
They raised the demand when nearly a dozen protesters were allowed to meet Noda on Wednesday since they began weekly anti-nuclear rallies before his central Tokyo residence five months ago.
The members asked Noda to halt two reactors at the Ohi plant in central Japan and not to restart offline reactors. The Ohi reactors were the first to be reactivated after last year's accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant which leaked radiation after it was knocked out by the massive tsunami that devastated Japan's north-east.
Noda called upon members of anti-nuclear citizens' groups to understand his government's nuclear power policy. He said he approved the restart of the Ohi plant after confirming its safety, and that he made the decision for the sake of people's lives, not to benefit certain business groups.
The Premier promised continued efforts to strengthen the safety of nuclear plants and told the group that a new nuclear regulatory body to be launched next month would conduct strict safety checks of nuclear power facilities in the country, Japanese media reported.
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