TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan unveiled a plan to quit nuclear power by the 2030s on Friday, a major policy shift from an earlier goal set before last year's Fukushima disaster to boost the share of atomic energy in electricity supply.
But Prime Minister Yoshohiko Noda's unpopular government, likely to face an election later this year, also proposed that reactors deemed safe by a new regulator now being set up could be restarted to ensure electricity supply is reliable in the meantime.
Japan's growing anti-nuclear movement is certain to oppose such a proposal.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was wrecked by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, triggering reactor meltdowns and radiation leaks that forced mass evacuations and widespread contamination. The nuclear crisis, the worst of its kind in a quarter of a century, prompted the government to scrap a 2010 plan to boost nuclear power's share of electricity to more than 50 percent by 2030.
(Reporting by Risa Maeda; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Michael Watson)