TEPCO to restart nuclear reactor for first time since 2011 Fukushima disaster

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) will restart on Wednesday (January 21) a reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant after inspections were completed, its first such move since the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

TEPCO said it would put online after 7 p.m. (1000 GMT) the 1.36 gigawatt (GW) reactor No. 6, one of seven at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, the world's biggest nuclear power station capable of producing 8.2 GW of electricity when at full capacity.

The restart was delayed from Tuesday (January 20) as TEPCO was investigating an alarm malfunction. As of early Wednesday, the equipment in question was functioning normally, TEPCO said.

Reactor No. 6 is expected to restart commercial operation, boosting the power supply in the Tokyo area - Japan's busiest - by the end of February. Reactor No. 7 is expected to be brought online around 2030 and some others could be decommissioned.

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.

Production: Joseph Campbell, Keval Singh/Reuters