TEPCO Stresses Safety at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Reactor in Press Tour

Tokyo, Dec. 3 (Jiji Press)–Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. on Tuesday opened the No. 6 reactor at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant to the press, demonstrating the safety of the unit, which the firm aims to bring back online. Members of the press were allowed to view the inside of the building of the reactor at the plant in Niigata Prefecture, central Japan, and a drill conducted based on lessons from the March 2011 triple meltdown at TEPCO’s tsunami-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station in northeastern Japan. The press tour was apparently intended for the company to emphasize that sufficient safety measures are in place at the No. 6 reactor of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, toward the envisaged resumption of its operations. Last month, Niigata Governor Hideyo Hanazumi announced his intention to tolerate the restart of the No. 6 reactor. The day’s drill was conducted on the assumption that power supplies were lost due to a disaster or other reason, making it impossible to cool a reactor. Participants in the drill confirmed the procedures of pumping water from a reservoir on the plant’s premises and cooling water inside the reactor using a heat exchanger. At the No. 6 reactor building, TEPCO employees gave an explanation about a system to combine hydrogen with oxygen into water vapor in order to prevent a hydrogen explosion in the event of an accident. At the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, there was an incident in 2020 in which a TEPCO employee entered a central control room using the ID card of another employee. In the press tour, the company explained that multiple biometric authentication systems have been introduced to prevent a similar incident. Takeyuki Inagaki, head of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, stressed that all staff workers at the plant are versed in safety measures, learning lessons from the Fukushima No. 1 plant accident. With the Niigata prefectural assembly expected to support Hanazumi’s decision to tolerate the reactivation of the No. 6 reactor, the procedures for TEPCO to gain local consent are likely to be completed by the end of this year. The restart of the No. 6 reactor is expected to become possible within fiscal 2025, which ends next March, at the earliest. It would be the first TEPCO reactor to be brought back online since the Fukushima No. 1 plant accident. However, concerns linger among people in the prefecture about the company responsible for the severe nuclear disaster bringing a reactor back to operation. A recent survey conducted by the prefectural government showed that opinions among residents about the restart were divided. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]