Japan pushes for restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on August 27, that Japanese ministers will convene next week to discuss the next steps for restarting Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (Tepco) Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant (NPP). The facility, located in Niigata, northern Japan, must first secure consent from the local government to resume operations.
Japan’s nuclear regulator lifted the operational ban on the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa site in December. The ban, imposed in 2021 due to safety breaches, had kept the plant offline since the 2012 nationwide shutdown of nuclear facilities following the Fukushima disaster in 2011. Since the lifting of the ban, Tepco has been working towards gaining local approval to restart the plant, which is the world’s largest nuclear power facility.
Although Tepco received initial regulatory approval in 2017 to restart two reactors at the plant, it has yet to obtain full consent from Niigata’s prefecture governor. The governor has indicated that more discussions are necessary before approval.
Nuclear facilities in Japan have faced challenges in securing consent to restart, with only 12 reactors reactivated since the 2011 disaster.