Japan's nuclear re-start bogged down in safety checks and paperwork

Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) Chairman Shunichi Tanaka (L) is seen in front of a screen showing the current situation of the contaminated water leakage in Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO)'s tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, during a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo September 2, 2013. REUTERS/Issei Kato/Files

TOKYO (Reuters) - Hundreds of technicians and engineers are camped out in Tokyo hotels trying to revive Japan's nuclear industry, shut down in the wake of the Fukushima disaster almost three years ago.

It's proving a hard slog. A new, more independent regulator is in place, asking difficult questions and seeking to impose tougher safety rules on powerful utilities that were largely their own masters for the past 50 years.