World's largest nuclear reactor restarts for first time since Fukushima disaster
Japan is accelerating its nuclear power programme to meet soaring electricity demand
The world's largest nuclear power plant has been restarted in north-central Japan for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown, as Japan accelerates atomic power use to meet soaring electricity needs.
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The first steps in energy production at the No 6 reactor of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant are important because the operator is Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, the same utility that runs the ruined Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Tepco's past safety issues at Fukushima have led to public worries about operations at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, which also sits in an isolated, quake-prone region.
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All seven reactors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa have been dormant since a year after the Fukushima Daiichi plant on Japan's north-eastern coast was hit by a massive quake and tsunami in March 2011 and suffered meltdowns that contaminated the surrounding land with radioactive fallout so severe that some areas are still unlivable.
Tepco is still trying to recover from the hit to its image, even as it works on a clean-up at Fukushima Daiichi that is estimated to cost 22 trillion yen.
Government and independent investigations blamed the Fukushima debacle on Tepco's bad safety culture and criticised it for collusion with safety authorities.
Fourteen other nuclear reactors have restarted across Japan since 2011, but this is the first Tepco-run unit to resume production.
Residents near the plant welcome the potential economic and employment benefits but worry about nuclear safety and the feasibility of evacuation plans, especially after a major quake in the nearby Noto region two years ago.
A restart of the No 6 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, about 135 miles north west of Tokyo, could generate an additional 1.35 million kilowatts of electricity, enough to power more than one million households in the capital region.
All seven units were taken offline in 2012 as part of nationwide safety shutdowns after the Fukushima disaster, though they were unaffected by that quake and tsunami.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant was partially damaged in a 2007 earthquake, causing safety worries and distrust among locals. Tepco responded by installing a quake-resistant command centre at the compound in 2009.
No 6 was one of the two reactors that had cleared safety tests in 2017, but faced an operational ban by the Nuclear Regulation Authority over serious safeguarding problems found in 2021. It finally got a green-light in 2023.
The restart follows revelations of seismic data falsification by another utility during safety screenings of one of its reactors. That has angered regulation officials and shaken public confidence.