Japan’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Energy Plant was restarted on 9 February, the primary reactivation of a nuclear energy facility within the nation because the 2011 accident at Fukushima. It’s scheduled to start industrial technology once more in mid-March.
Positioned in Japan’s Nigata Prefecture, the plant is taken into account the world’s largest by put in capability (roughly 7,965 MW),1 and is operated by Tokyo Electrical Energy (Tepco), the operator of the previous Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Energy Plant.
The 1,356-megawatt (MW) unit 6 reactor was restarted at 2pm native time on 9 February, and is scheduled to renew energy technology and transmission on 16 February. A deliberate shutdown is to be undertaken on 20 February, previous to additional inspection by the NRA. Industrial operation is predicted to start on 18 March.
Unit 6 and seven on the plant are each superior boiling water reactors (ABWR), the primary such deployment of the know-how on this planet. That is an evolution of the older-style BWR reactors used at Fukushima, and people current elsewhere at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, which aren’t anticipated to be restarted. ABWRs function extra security techniques together with redundant core cooling techniques and a extra fashionable containment vessel mentioned to be able to withstanding extreme earthquakes and tsunamis.
Tepco has commented: “We are going to proceed to conduct integrity checks of the plant tools below precise steam working circumstances, whereas absolutely and sincerely responding to inspections by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.”
Approval to restart the unit 6 and seven reactors on the plant was secured from the NRA in 2017, however awaited native approval, which was lastly granted late final yr by Nigata Prefecture.
Sanae Takaichi turned Japan’s first feminine Prime Minister in October 2025, with a mandate to enormously increase the position of nuclear within the nation’s power combine, and professed coverage priorities of securing power safety, financial stability and secure electrical energy provide.
Previous to Fukushima, nuclear energy offered round 30% of the nation’s electrical energy, however was stopped totally inside 14 months of the 2011 accident. This adopted a 9.0 earthquake within the area, which in flip triggered a tsunami.
Notes
[1] The “largest plant” title can also be probably attributable to Bruce Nuclear Producing Station in Ontario, which is a pacesetter in annual electrical energy technology.
