Japan restarts nuclear power plant

TOKYO -- Nuclear power returned to Japan's energy mix for the first time in two months yesterday, hours before a parliamentary panel blamed the government's cozy relations with the industry for the meltdowns that prompted the mass shutdown of the nation's reactors.

Though the report echoes other investigations into last year's disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, it could fuel complaints that Japan is trying to restart nuclear reactors without doing enough to avoid a repeat. Yesterday's resumption of operations at a reactor in Ohi, in western Japan, already had been hotly contested.

Yesterday's report said the Fukushima disaster was "man-made" because it should have been foreseen and avoided. It said that since at least 2006, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. -- or TEPCO -- knew the risk of a total power outage at Fukushima Dai-ichi in case of a major tsunami. The report accused both of "intentionally" postponing safety measures to avoid reactor stoppages.

The 10-member commission appointed by parliament in December interviewed 1,167 people in hearings exceeding 900 hours.