A Japanese nuclear power plant received initial safety clearance on Wednesday, making it most likely the first nuclear plant to restart after the Fukushima disaster of 2011 crippled the industry.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is working towards the restart of Japan's 48 nuclear reactors. The long-term shutdown pushed the country to import expensive fossil fuel as energy source, Reuters reported.

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The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) gave Kyushu Electric Co's 9508.T initial safety clearance for its Sendai nuclear facility and accepted its new design and safety components. The new standards for safety now include protection against severe nuclear accidents, earthquakes, tsunami and other natural calamities.

The nuclear station is expected to restart between September and November this year.

A massive quake and tsunami that hit the Fukushima Daiichi facility in March 2011 triggered a gradual shutdown of nuclear reactors in Japan. The disaster also led to the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 meltdown in Chernobyl.

Kyushu Electric already posted three years' worth of losses and filed for a bailout by a state-funded bank. The firm expects to shell out over $3 billion for the upgrade of its two nuclear facilities in southern Japan.

NRA's decision to approve Kyushu Electric's safety clearance will be of great help to the nuclear industry as a whole. Five other similar nuclear plants will most likely gain approval more quickly, according to NRA director Tomoya Ichimura. Nine Japanese electric utility companies applied for the restart of 19 nuclear reactors.

The nuclear industry once supplied a third of Japan's electricity. Its shutdown caused electricity rates in the country to rise and contributed to almost two years of trade losses.

Meanwhile, critics are not sold out to the idea of the nuclear plants resuming their operations. In a statement, campaigning group Greenpeace said the NRA's approval of the Sendai plant restart is tantamount to turning a blind eye on "unresolved safety issues."

Greenpeace reasoned that the Sendai plant has "no effective evacuation plan" for the residents in the region and no functional emergency response facility shielded from radiation. In addition, the group said the company still did not fully assess the risks coming from a volcano located nearby.

Sendai's safety clearance does not signify a quick rise of the nuclear industry as only a two-thirds of the country's 48 reactors will pass NRA's safety checks and other hurdles, based on a Reuters analysis posted in April. The regulator still needs to consult the public for one month before making a final approval.