- Tepco has been trying to restart the facility to save money on maintenance.
- Since 2012, the plant has not been operational due to the Fukushima accident.
- Japan is keen to start up more nuclear power facilities.
Tokyo Electric Power’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station was granted permission to seek municipal clearance for restarting two years ago after the nuclear power regulator in Japan lifted the plant’s operational prohibition.
The largest atomic power plant in the world, Tepco, has been trying to restart the facility to save money on maintenance. Still, approval from the local administrations of Kariwa village, Kashiwazaki city, and Niigata prefecture is needed before any restart can take place.
Nuclear plant
Since 2012, the plant has not been operational due to the Fukushima accident, which resulted in the closure of all nuclear power reactors in Japan at that time. Owing to safety violations, Tepco was prohibited from operating Kashiwazaki-Kariwa by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) in 2021.
Resumption had been essentially blocked by the NRA’s lifting of a corrective action order that had stopped Tepco from loading fuel rods into its reactors or bringing fresh uranium fuel to the facility.
Tepco declared that it would keep working to win back the confidence of the neighborhood and society at large, and Japan’s chief cabinet secretary promised that the government would contribute to the endeavor.
Limited resources To become less dependent on imported fossil fuels like LNG, Japan is keen to start up more nuclear power facilities.
