The world’s biggest nuclear power plant is again operating, after an earlier attempt to bring the facility back online was suspended due to an equipment problem.
Unit 6 of the Kashiwazaka-Kariwa plant in the Niigata region in Japan was restarted February 9. The facility features seven reactors and a total nameplate generation capacity of nearly 8 GW. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), had attempted to restart the unit in January but suspended the effort after an alarm was triggered in the control rod operation monitoring system.
“We will continue to demonstrate our commitment to safety as our priority at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station through our actions and results,” TEPCO said in a statement Monday.
Japan shut down all the country’s nuclear reactors in the months following the March 2011 Fukushima disaster. The Kashiwaza-Kariwa plant was not affected by that incident, though all seven of its units were taken offline for as long as three years after the 2007 Niigata-Chuetsu earthquake. TEPCO during that shutdown worked to improve the facility’s ability to withstand seismic activity. TEPCO also operates the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which is now being decommissioned after damage from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which resulted in a reactor meltdown and release of radiation.
15th Unit to Restart
The unit restarted on Monday is the 15th reactor Japan has brought back online since all nuclear operations were suspended in the wake of Fukushima. Japan wants to restart its nuclear power industry in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and reduce the country’s reliance on fossil fuels—particularly imported liquefied natural gas.
Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s first female prime minister, and who was re-elected in a landslide victory on February 8, is a proponent of nuclear power as an economic engine for the country.
TEPCO officials on Monday said they expect to continue comprehensive inspections of the Kashiwaza-Kariwa plant as they prepare for its full return to commercial operations. Unit 6 at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the first TEPCO-run unit to restart since 2011. The nuclear power plant’s complex now includes a 50-foot-high wall to protect against tsunamis. It also has upgraded safety and emergency power systems in accordance with standards put forth by Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
