TEPCO Reactor to Be Restarted as Early as Jan. 20

Tokyo, Jan. 4 (Jiji Press)–Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. is slated to reactivate the No. 6 reactor at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in central Japan as early as Jan. 20. This will mark the first time for TEPCO to bring a reactor back online since the March 2011 triple meltdown at its disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan. The restart of the reactor at the plant straddling the city of Kashiwazaki and the village of Kariwa in Niigata Prefecture also means that the Japanese government will take a further step in its policy of making maximum use of nuclear energy for power generation. Still, uncertainty lingers over the realization of the nuclear fuel cycle, which centers on the reuse of spent nuclear fuel. The government’s new basic energy plan is “like (the energy industry’s) constitution, which led to various developments,” Kingo Hayashi, chairman of the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan and president of Chubu Electric Power Co., told a press conference late last year. The new basic plan, adopted by the cabinet in February 2025, seeks to promote the restart of idled nuclear reactors and the rebuilding of aging reactors while deleting the wording calling for the country’s dependence on nuclear power generation to be reduced as much as possible, which had been maintained since the March 2011 accident. Late last year, Niigata Governor Hideyo Hanazumi gave his prefecture’s consent to the restart of the No. 6 and No. 7 reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant. Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki approved the reactivation of the No. 3 reactor at Hokkaido Electric Power Co.’s Tomari nuclear power station in the village of Tomari in the northernmost Japan prefecture. All nuclear reactors in Japan were halted temporarily in the wake of the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, which was heavily damaged by tsunami from the March 11, 2011, powerful earthquake. Later, 14 reactors were brought back online. Of these, 13 are in western Japan, with the remaining one in eastern Japan–the No. 2 reactor at Tohoku Electric Power Co.’s Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture, which was reactivated in October 2024. Hideki Masui, president of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, has said, “If TEPCO, which caused the nuclear accident, improves safety measures and operates the (Kashiwazaki-Kariwa No. 6) reactor stably, it would have a symbolic meaning for the entire nuclear power industry.” In addition, Kansai Electric Power Co. has started geological and other surveys in the town of Mihama, Fukui Prefecture, central Japan, with a view to building a next-generation nuclear power reactor. Meanwhile, challenges remain over spent nuclear fuel from power stations. The Japanese government has a basic policy to extract uranium and plutonium from spent fuel and reuse them. A spent fuel reprocessing plant, a key component of the nuclear fuel cycle, is being built in the village of Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan, with its completion now slated for fiscal 2026 after being postponed 27 times. As spent fuel pools at nuclear power plants are nearly full, power companies are seeking temporary storage at interim facilities, but the situation remains tough. In addition, work has been slow to select venues for the final disposal of high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power stations, which cannot be reused. Only three municipalities–the town of Suttsu and the village of Kamoenai, both in Hokkaido, and the town of Genkai in the southwestern prefecture of Saga–have applied for the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s first-stage literature survey for selecting a final disposal site. The first-stage survey has been completed in the two Hokkaido municipalities. But the future course remains unclear as the Hokkaido government opposes Suttsu and Kamoenai proceeding to the second-stage preliminary investigation. The first-stage survey is underway in Genkai. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]