At a meeting of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) on June 13 the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) disclosed that it is expected to gradually resume operations of four research reactors in Ibaraki Prefecture from October 2017.

The four reactors include the JRR3 reactor, which is utilized to analyze the structure of a protein; the NSRR (Nuclear Safety Research Reactor); STACY, which is used to study nuclear criticality of a uranium solution, and the HTTR (high-temperature test reactor). The HTTR is located in the Oarai Research & Development Center (Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture) and the three other reactors are in JAEA. Like commercial nuclear reactors, passing the NRA’s safety checks is a condition for resuming operations of the four research reactors.