For the first time since the catastrophic 2011 meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear plant, Japan has approved the restart of a nuclear power station.

The town of Satsuma Sendai, home to 100,000 residents, has approved the restart of the two-reactor Kyushu Electric Power Company plant.

The Sendai plant is central to the economy of the town, located 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) southwest of Tokyo, providing jobs as well as government subsidies to the population.

The approval signals a rejuvenation in the Japanese nuclear power industry.

The meltdown of three of the plant’s six reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex resulted from a mammoth tsunami that struck the plant following a 9.0-magnitude earthquake that hit the Fukushima prefecture on March 11, 2011. Within less than 24 hours, the plant started releasing substantial amounts of radioactive material.

Israel was one of the first nations allowed by Japan to assist in the disaster. The IDF and other Israeli first responder aid specialists sent teams to Fukushima to provide medical and other assistance as needed.

Two planes carried 50 doctors, representatives of the IDF Home Front Command and Foreign Ministry, 62 tons of medical supplies and 18 tons of humanitarian supplies. Included were 10,000 coats, 6,000 blankets, 8,000 pairs of gloves and 150 portable toilets. Also included were medical instruments, fuel, oxygen, medication, food, water, hospital beds and other equipment for establishing a medical clinic.

More than 300,000 people were evacuated from the area, and at least 15,884 people died.

Since that time, Japan has not allowed any nuclear plant to resume operations.

Each nuclear reactor was slowly and carefully monitored as it wound down operations for its periodic maintenance, and then ordered to remain shut down until further notice.

The Kyushu Electric Power Company plant at Satsumu Sendai is the first to be allowed to restart since the disaster.

The cleanup process of continued spills of contaminated water at the Fukushima plant is expected to take decades, according to nuclear scientists. The disaster was the largest nuclear incident since the April 1986 Chernobyl accident, and the second to measure Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

The 6.1 earthquake that jolted northern California in the middle of the night Sunday upended furniture and scattered broken glass at the Napa Valley Chabad Jewish Center.

“It was very violent—not a gentle rolling quake, but more of a jolting traumatic experience that shocked us out of sleep at 3:20 a.m. and lasted for about half a minute, Rabbi Elchonon Tenenbaum told the Chabad website.

The rabbi, his wife and five children were not injured.

Tenenbaum said he waited outside with his neighbors until daybreak before going back into his home and Chabad center, where power had been lost, to survey the damage. Upended furniture and broken glass prevented him from accessing some rooms, including his office. A disaster recovery fund was quickly established for those wanting to help out.

“I went to check up on people in the area and found that they were in a similar situation,” he added. “Their houses are standing, but everything inside has been ruined. Thank God, this happened in the middle of the night when we were in our beds and not in other parts of our homes, where heavy bookcases fell over.”

The Chabad website reported, “Tenenbaum says that waking up in the middle of the night with his children screaming amid violent banging and shaking helped him picture what life must be like on a regular basis for people living in Israel, where Hamas has been firing rockets from Gaza for much of the summer.”

“It is really surreal,” he said. “There are some stores that are functioning as usual, and others have been completely destroyed for now. Some streets are buckled, and others are just fine. Some people have broken water mains or leaking gas pipes, and others do not.”

Many residents in the area, famous for its wineries, are crying over wine spilled from barrels that were broken from the earthquake.

The largest quake to hit the San Francisco area in 25 years, it caused several injuries, including three who are in critical condition, set off fires and knocked out power.

Napa’s downtown historical areas sustained irreparable damage.

A 6.0-strong earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay area wide awake Sunday morning.

At least 89 people were sent to the hospital and Governor Jerry Brown decided to declare a state of emergency.

The epicenter of the temblor was located about nine miles south of Napa wine country, at about 3:20 am Pacific Time, within 44 miles of the San Andreas fault system between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. It lasted about 10 to 20 seconds, depending on where along the state the quake was measured.

Residents were shaken as far south as Santa Cruz, and into the Sonoma Valley. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, an aftershock measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale occurred at 5:47 am Pacific Time, at a depth of about five miles.

Four mobile homes in the Napa Valley Mobile Home Park ignited and burned to the ground. Two others were damaged, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times. Elsewhere homes were in disarray, and buildings were partially crumbled. A hospital building itself was damaged, and there were concerns over gas and water main leaks and breaks. Power outages were reported in several counties and bridges were examined minutely for damage as well. Only one overpass in Vallejo on California 37 heading towards American Canyon was found damaged.

Last week the Piraeus, a ZIM Integrated Shipping Services vessel, was blocked blocked from unloading at the Port of Oakland in San Francisco Bay by ‘Free Gaza’ protesters from the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement.

The anti-Israel activists prevented dock workers from doing their jobs for several days, forcing the vessel to circle in the Pacific Ocean until police officers finally blocked the protesters and enabled the process to take place. A similar pro-jihadi effort to “block the boat” failed further up the coast.

A special monitoring system run by the University of Padova in Italy has been installed in the Tower of David heritage site as part of an international project that attempts to use technology to determine the structural weaknesses in an ancient edifice .

The Tower of David is the tallest structure in the Old City of Jerusalem and a famous symbol to residents and tourist, with at least 2,000 years’ worth of history dating back to the First Temple period.

However, six major cracks in the tower raise questions if the structure would be able to survive an earthquake. Israel is located in a region extremely prone to earthquakes, and a major quake could be devastating.

“A major earthquake poses a serious threat and needs to be treated as such,” Dr. Avi Shapira, chairman of Israel’s National Earthquake Preparedness Committee,  told Tazpit News Agency.

“We want to preserve the structures of our past and historical monuments of the Holy Land that are significant to the world.,” he added.

Israel experienced five moderate earthquakes in October, which prompted experts to install a seismic monitoring system at the Tower of David in November 2013.

In a special conference at the Tower of David this week, Italian experts brought their knowledge during unique sessions addressing earthquake monitoring.

“Italy is a world leader in the earthquake monitoring field and conducting research in methodology for effective dealing with earthquakes,” explains Professor Claudio Modena, a Professor of Structural Engineering at the University of Padova. “Israel is new to this area, and we believe that sharing our knowledge will help maintain historical structures in the event of a major earthquake.”

Modena, who lives in Verona, Italy, has also investigated historical and archaeological sites in Akko, Tzfat, and Beit Shean.

In wake of the series of small earthquakes that recently hit Tiberias, Kineret Hotels managers are reporting that many dozens of Tel Aviv residents have cancelled their vacations in Tiberias.

Roni Manor, the general manager of the Nof Ginnosar hotel told Makor Rishon that yesterday a group of 25 Tel Avivians called and cancelled their stay this weekend, because “they’re afraid of an earthquake”.

Manor told the group that they’re crazy, “They live in Tel Aviv, the main target of Iran’s nukes, and they’re afraid of some tremors!”

Manor said, the country’s scared, because the media is creating panic.

So we’ll take the other route at JewishPress.com, if you want to go away this weekend (and aren’t going to Hebron for Parshat Chayei Sarah), check it out, you might be able to get good rates right now at a Tiberias hotel.

Another earthquake, at least the seventh in the past week, hit Israel again on Wednesday, this time in Eilat and causing a bit of nervousness but no injuries or damage.

All of the previous recent earthquakes were in the area of Tiberias and the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), in northern Israel.

The temblor in Eilat was measured at 3.3. on the Richter scale and was felt around 3:30 p.m. (8:30 a.m. EDT). Seismologists said the unusual number of earthquakes in a short period of time do not necessarily mean that a major quake is on the horizon, but the coincidence of the temblors has re-awakened awareness about a possible disaster in the event of a major quake.

Home Front Minister MK Gilad Erdan of the Likud party told the Knesset Wednesday that a major earthquake could cause the deaths of 7,000 people and injuries to tens of thousands others.

A minor earthquake, the fifth in a week, shook up residents in the area of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) Tuesday morning.

The temblor, which measured 3.3 on the Richter scale and was centered just northwest of the Sea of Galilee, was felt from Tiberias up to the Golan Heights.

It came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered earthquake drills in schools on the same day that two earthquakes struck.

All five of the quakes have been centered near the Sea of Galilee, which is located on the Great Syria-African Rift, which has been the center of several earthquakes, large and small. It is unclear what the string of temblors means for future earthquakes.

Hundreds of people died and were injured in a 6.2 magnitude earthquake in 1927 that centered on the Dead Sea.