Japanese power companies operating nuclear plants, they're ready to file applications to restart some of their reactors. All but two of the nation's 50 commercial reactors were shut down in the wake of the Fukushima accident. The utilities plan to submit their applications as soon as updated nuclear safety requirements take effect on Monday. Power companies are seeking to restart in total of 10 reactors at five nuclear plants. The plants are located throughout Japan from Tomari in northern Hokkaido to Sendai in southern Kagoshima prefecture. Applications will be submitted the first day next week to the nuclear regulation authority. Regulators will proceed to screen them based on the new safety requirements. They will determine whether the utilities have taken all necessary measures to prevent accidents like a meltdown from happening. Officials at the NRA say it will take at least six months to process each application. The trans-nuclear regulators have given the green light for two nuclear reactors to stay online when strict to safety rules coming to effect next week. The oil plants number three and four reactors are the only two operating in Japan. The officials from the nuclear regulation authority inspected the plant to see if it conforms to the new requirements. They concluded that there is no immediate serious safety problem. We've decided that there's no need to halt the two reactors at the oil plant. It's still a save-a-day, don't know. The reactors will keep running until their next maintenance check that's scheduled for September. Executives overseeing the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant want to restart reactors at another plant they own. The Tepco officials want permission to resume operations at the reactors in Kashiwazaki Niigata prefecture. But they face stiff opposition. All but two reactors in Japan remain offline following the 2011 accident at the Fukushima plant. Reactors meet new safety standards that go into effect this month before they can go back into operation. Niigata Governor Hirohiko Izumida is opposed to the plant by the Tokyo Electric Power Company. He says there can be no discussion about restarting the plant until the Fukushima accident is thoroughly investigated. Tepco's board of directors decided to apply for government screening of the Kashiwazaki plant as soon as the new guidelines take effect. We'd like to explain to the residents why we want to make our application to the government as soon as possible. Tepco raised electricity fees last year to cover the growing cost of fuel for its thermal power plants. But it continues to struggle with a huge deficit. Tepco posted more than $6.8 billion in losses for the year through March. The firm must return to the black by March next year in order to receive taxpayer money and bank loans to rebuild its finances. It says by operating just one reactor it can cut fuel costs by about $10 million a month. Managers of Japan's nuclear plants are getting ready for a new reality. Regulators have been working on strengthening safety standards ever since the 2011 accident in Fukushima. The changes take effect next month. And already people are questioning how tough the rules will be to put into practice. NHK World's Hajime Okada walks us through some of the issues in today's nuclear watch. Nuclear Regulators spent nine months drawing up the new requirements. They revised the rules following the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi. An earthquake and tsunami triggered meltdowns in three reactors at the plant. The new requirements of a large plant operators to implement a number of measures. Operators must prepare for the highest predicted tsunami wave. They have to set up breakwaters and take other precautions to prevent seawater from entering facilities. A loss of power triggered the meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi. The new requirements oblige operators to upgrade backup power systems. In addition, they have to build alternative control rooms. And they have to install filter vents that will remove radioactive substances when engineers release pressure and containment vessels to prevent explosions. We aim to make requirements that are the most stringent when compared to international standards. But a closer look reveals potential problems. Regulators will face obstacles in determining whether operators are meetings and new requirements. One issue involves electric cabling. A dense network of cables snakes through nuclear plants. It serves a number of functions from power supply to risk control. One reactor needs 2,000 km of cable. Near 40 years ago, a fire at the US nuclear plant exposed the vulnerability of these cables. Frames burned for 8 hours. Ruining cables and knocking out the reactor cooling system. Japanese regulators say they recognize the importance of fire proofing. A fire could be a major cause of a meltdown. Fire prevention measures need to be stepped up. The new requirements call for the use of special cables that don't catch fire easily. They also allow utilities to coat ordinary cables with fire-returned materials. This method is in practice at the 13th of Japan's 15 nuclear reactors. Operators say fire-returned cables or cables called it in fire-returned material are equally effective. An expert we spoke to disagrees. Sections with thin fire-returned coatings are less resistant to fire. Those sections are highly likely to get damaged early on. We asked experts to conduct tests to determine the difference coating sickness makes. The experts compare coatings that are more than 1.5 mm thick to ones that are less than 1 mm thick. The experts burn the cables for 20 minutes. The temperature is about 60 degrees. The temperature is about 60 degrees. After 6 minutes, fire engulfed the cables with 1 mm thick coating. It happened with a number of samples. It's evident, thinly coated cables burn easily. And so, plant operators need to examine the thickness of fire-retarding coatings on cables to determine the effectiveness of fire-proofing. Regulators haven't specified how they will verify the performances of cable networks at nuclear plants. Some say similar problems remain with other equipment and facilities. All the equipment would be extremely difficult, inspecting plants to verify safety as a colossal challenge. There are 50 nuclear reactors in Japan. Monitoring all those reactors isn't going to be easy. It may even prove impossible. The nuclear regression authority has 80 inspectors. They rightly need more manpower and more expertise.