Hello and welcome to Backchat. That's the sound of summer in the newsroom, the sound of

pipettes lying abandoned on benchtops, the sound of scientists not answering their phones,

because they're all having a well-earned summer break. In Backchat, we reflect on the science

stories of the month, and it's the summer month of August. Our reporters and editors get to tell

you what they really think of what's being going on this month.

I'm Kerry Smith and I have two very special guests joining me today.

One is Nature's Celeste Beaver.

Hi there. I edit Nature's News section.

And today we also have an external special guest joining us on the line from NPR's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

is their science correspondent Jeff Brumfield.

Hi, Carrie. Nice to be here.

Now, coming up this month, Japan has restarted one of the nuclear reactors in the Sendai power plant.

After all, its nuclear power plants were turned off due to the Fukushima disaster.

What does it mean the restart for Japan's

energy plans? We'll also be talking about the summer doldrums, among news reporters at least,

that well-recognised phenomenon of there being no science news in the summer. What are the

impacts of summer lulls on science coverage? And since we have Jeff Brumfield here, we'll be comparing

science stories and coverage at nature versus NPR.

So first, let's go to Japan, where the Sendai nuclear power plant switched a reactor back on after four years.

It looked like that wasn't on the cards at all after the Fukushima disaster, which is in 2011.

And Jeff, you covered that story at the time, didn't you?

Can you remind us what happened?

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