TEPCO, as the utility is known, said it was forced to stop the process for the No. 6 reactor at its Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant on Thursday due to an issue with an electrical part, according to a spokesperson.
Tokyo:Tokyo Electric Power Co., Japan’s largest utility, suspended the restart process of its nuclear power plant in Niigata prefecture, less than a day after resuming its first reactor since the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
TEPCO, as the utility is known, said it was forced to stop the process for the No. 6 reactor at its Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant on Thursday due to an issue with an electrical part, according to a spokesperson. The unit began the restart process a little after 7 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
Kashiwazaki Kariwa is the world’s biggest nuclear power plant and its restart is a turning point for Japan, which is still grappling with the fallout from the Fukushima meltdown. It took Tepco years to secure local approval to restart the facility due to safety missteps and concerns.
Thursday’s issue was with a part inside the control panel used to operate and monitor the reactor’s control rods that regulate the nuclear chain reaction, the spokesperson said. It was not immediately clear when the process to restart the plant would continue.
The restart was expected to be a “a major turning point” for the government, said Filippo Pedretti, a nuclear and thermal power analyst with Japan NRG in Tokyo.
The revival of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa brings the total number of reactors in Japan currently restarted to 15, out of the 33 reactors that remain operable after the shutdown of Japan’s entire fleet of 54 reactors in the wake of TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi reactor meltdown in 2011.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is pushing for the construction of new reactors, especially new-generation and small modular reactors (SMRs), with the government recently announcing a new public funding scheme to accelerate a nuclear power comeback.
After setbacks in its offshore wind roll-out and inflation pressure from fossil fuel imports, Japan is switching its attention to nuclear power again to boost energy security and reduce gas and coal purchases.