The restart of units 3 and 4 of Kansai Electric Power Company's Takahama nuclear power plant, expected by the end of this year, has been blocked by a temporary injunction imposed by the Fukui District Court today. Kansai said it will appeal the ruling.

Nuclear power benefitted the Japanese economy by some ¥33 trillion over the years, said Masakazu Toyoda of the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ), and the country risks wasting this in its slow progress to restart its reactors.

UPDATED A shape-changing robot began surveying conditions within the primary containment vessel of the damaged unit 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi plant on 10 April. However, the robot stopped working before completing its mission.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has approved parliament's ratification of an intergovernmental agreement with Japan to build a nuclear power plant at Sinop, according to a statement on his website yesterday.

Unit 2 of Kansai Electric Power Company's Takahama nuclear power plant in Japan's Fukui prefecture has been granted a ten-year operating life extension by the country's nuclear regulator.

The restart of unit 2 of the Tsuruga nuclear power plant in Japan's Fukui prefecture has been thrown into doubt after the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) accepted a report compiled by a panel of experts that concluded the unit sits upon an active fault line. However, plant owner Japan Atomic Power Company says it still plans to apply for safety checks in order to restart it.

Initial results from using a muon detection system at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi unit 1 in Japan appear to confirm that most of the fuel has melted and dropped from its original position within the core, Tokyo Electric Power Company announced.

More clarity on Japan's nuclear future came today as the first unit slated for restart gained technical approval, while two further older reactors were announced for retirement rather than being put through the restart process.

Kansai Electric Power Company and the Japan Atomic Power Company have decided to decommission three nuclear power plants shut down after the Fukushima accident of 2011 rather than applying to restart them.

More than 90% of the contaminated water stored on the Fukushima Daiichi site will be treated by the end of May, two months later than originally planned, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) announced today.

The transfer of radioactive soil and waste generated from clean-up work following the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to a provisional storage site has been approved by the governor of Fukushima prefecture and the mayors of Futaba and Okuma.

Significant tasks have been completed in the clean-up and decommissioning of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, an international expert mission has concluded. However, it says many challenging issues remain.