The Monju Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor, located in a coastal town 350 kilometres (220 miles) west of Tokyo, was reactivated for the first time since the December 1995 accident, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency said.

Unlike regular light-water reactors that run on uranium, fast-breeders use a mix of plutonium and uranium, including waste from conventional reactors, and generate or "breed" more plutonium than they consume.

Major industrialised nations initially rushed to develop the "dream reactors", but technical problems and fears over the proliferation of weapons-grade plutonium have led many to withdraw from the projects.

The United States, Britain and Germany have suspended fast-breeder projects and France shut down its last such reactor last year. The United States and France continue research and development of the technology.

Besides Japan, Russia and India are now the only nations that operate fast-breeder reactors, with China also hoping to start this year.

Japan, an energy resource-poor nation with plans to expand its nuclear power sector, gave the green light for the Monju relaunch earlier this year, with a target of commercialising fast-breeders by 2050.

On Thursday morning, Monju director general Kazuo Mukai declared that the nuclear reactor was reactivated after one of its control rods, which had been inserted to prevent an atomic reaction, was lifted.

Dozens of workers in the control room clapped in celebration.

The reactor is expected to reach criticality -- the point when a nuclear chain reaction becomes self-sustaining -- on Saturday but is not scheduled to generate power at full capacity until 2013.

Monju's relaunch was delayed for years in part because of outrage over the accident and the cover-up by the operator, which had initially released altered video footage of the fire in the facility.

In the 1995 accident, which came only months after the plant had started generating electricity, sodium coolant leaked from a pipe and, reacting with oxygen and moisture, sparked a fire.

No one was injured and no radioactivity released.

Safety inspections later found more problems in the shuttered plant, including a corrosion hole in a ventilation duct that would have leaked radioactive emissions outside the facility.

"I never thought it would take so long to restart Monju," said Japan Atomic Energy Agency adviser Hiromi Tanabe, who recalled joining the 1995 clean-up.

"We know by now how important it is to disclose information to the public."

Japan, the world's second largest economy, has few energy resources of its own and relies on the nuclear power generated by more than 50 plants for nearly a third of its domestic electricity needs.

Opponents of nuclear power stress the risk of earthquakes in Japan, which is located at the intersection of four tectonic plates, dotted with volcanos and is regularly hit by strong tremors.

The Tokyo-based group the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center said: "We believe that Monju is an accident waiting to happen and that it is, therefore, irresponsible to restart the plant."

The group said the during the plant's long closure its equipment and piping had aged and that two active seismic faults below the site had now been recognised.

"We demand that the government stop playing Russian roulette with our lives and permanently close down Monju," the group said.

In July 2007, the world's biggest nuclear plant, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, northwest of Tokyo, was shut down by a strong tremor, although no one was hurt. Only two out of its seven reactors have resumed operations.

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