Japan proposes reactor re-starts

The Japanese government says it has adopted new provisional safety standards for restarting suspended nuclear reactors, with critics saying they're inadequate.

The standards are part of a government effort to get reactors that have been suspended for regular maintenance back on line to avoid energy shortages this summer, The Asahi Shimbun reported Friday.

Parts of the new standards were already implemented last year by the government following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, but the new standards contain mid- to long-term safety requirements, officials said.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda dropped a previous stance that they were not necessary and instructed the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency to compile the provisional standards on April 3.

Critics have attacked the government's haste in coming up with the new standards.

"There is no way for the government to hastily put standards together and judge safety in a couple of weeks (properly)," Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said. "Japan will collapse if (restarts are) approved based on these procedures."