Tokyo (Platts)--10Mar2014/648 am EDT/1048 GMT

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday that the country intends to restart nuclear reactors once they are confirmed safe by the country's independent Nuclear Regulatory Authority.

Speaking at a televised press conference, Abe said the country intends to "proceed restarting" nuclear reactors that are confirmed safe by the world's "most rigorous-level" safety standards and scrutiny.

Abe said any nuclear restarts would come after confirmed safety assurances based on lessons from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

However, he declined to put a timeline on any restarts for the country's idled operable nuclear reactors as the NRA is still carrying out safety assessments.

Abe was speaking a day ahead of the third anniversary of Japan's devastating March 2011 earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster.

So far seven Japanese power utilities have applied to the NRA to assess whether their 17 nuclear reactors comply with the country's new safety standards, which came into effect in July.

Japan currently has 48 operable nuclear reactors, none of which are running. This follows Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s de-commissioning of units 5 and 6 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant on January 31.

--Takeo Kumagai, takeo.kumagai@platts.com
--Edited by Jonathan Fox, jonathan.fox@platts.com

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