TOKYO: Japan will restart the world’s largest nuclear power plant next week after a technical glitch forced the suspension of its first reboot since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, operators said on Friday.
Takeyuki Inagaki, head of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), told a press conference that the company plans “to start up the reactor on February 9.”
The announcement follows an earlier attempt to restart the reactor on January 21, which was halted the following day after an alarm in the plant’s monitoring system was triggered, according to AFP.
Inagaki explained that the alert was caused by a configuration error, which detected minor fluctuations in electrical current in a single cable, even though the readings remained within safe operating limits.
TEPCO has since adjusted the alarm settings and confirmed that the reactor is safe to operate, he said. Commercial operations are expected to begin on or after March 18, pending another comprehensive safety inspection.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility is the world’s largest nuclear power plant by potential generating capacity. However, only one of its seven reactors is scheduled to restart at this stage.
The plant has remained offline since Japan shut down its nuclear fleet following the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in 2011, which triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.
Japan, which lacks significant natural resources, is now seeking to revive nuclear energy to curb its dependence on fossil fuels, meet rising electricity demand—particularly from artificial intelligence and data centres—and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa will be the first TEPCO-operated nuclear unit to resume operations since the Fukushima disaster. TEPCO also runs the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which is currently undergoing a decades-long decommissioning process.
Public opinion in the surrounding Niigata region remains divided. A survey conducted by the prefectural government in September found that around 60 percent of residents oppose restarting the plant, while 37 percent support the move.
Opposition groups have also raised safety concerns. In January, seven groups submitted a petition signed by nearly 40,000 people to TEPCO and Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, arguing that the plant is located near an active seismic fault zone and noting that it was damaged during a powerful earthquake in 2007.
