Japan has restarted its second nuclear reactor since the Fukushima disaster in 2011 shut down the country's nuclear energy program.

The Kyushu Electric Power Company told CNN that it restarted the Dai-ni reactor at Sendai Nuclear Power Plant Thursday morning, as planned and the reactor is scheduled to be fully operational and producing power by October 21.

The move comes despite widespread opposition to the use of nuclear energy in Japan.

The plant, in the country's southern Kagoshima prefecture, on the southern island of Kyushu, also hosts the only other reactor to have been restarted since the disaster, which saw much of Fukushima prefecture, north of the capital, Tokyo, evacuated in 2011.

The company restarted the Dai-ichi -- number one -- reactor at the same Sendai power plant on August 12, 2015.

(CNN)