Japan PM to hold off decision to restart reactors

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will meet three cabinet members on Tuesday to discuss restarting two offline reactors amid concern about a summer power crunch but will not make any immediate decision, the top government spokesman said.

Concerns still run deep about nuclear safety in Japan after the Fukushima crisis just over a year ago.

All but one of Japan's 54 reactors have been shut, mostly for maintenance checks, over the months since the disaster at Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima plant, triggered by a huge tsunami in March 2011. The remaining reactor is set to be closed for maintenance on May 5.

Kansai Electric Power's No.3 and No.4 reactors at Ohi nuclear plant in Fukui prefecture, western Japan, are the first to have passed government-imposed, computer-simulated stress tests, a necessary step before any restart.

But the government must persuade wary locals that the plants are safe after last year's magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years at Tokyo Electric's Fukushima plant.

Most local governments hosting nuclear plants want new safety steps and the governors of Kyoto and Shiga prefectures, bordering Fukui, have opposed the restarts.

Nuclear power supplied about 30 percent of Japan's electricity before the crisis, and Noda's administration is now debating what role it should play in the future.

"Whether to restart the reactors is for future discussion," Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters, adding that the main issue was how to address local concerns about nuclear safety. "This is only the first meeting," he said.

Trade Minister Yukio Edano, who holds the energy portfolio, said on Monday he was opposed to the restart of Ohi reactors at present, adding it would need understanding local governments that host the plant as well as the governors of Kyoto and Shiga.

(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori and Nobuhiro Kubo; Editing by Michael Watson and Jeremy Laurence)