Tokyo to restart Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant after 15 years
Japan has cleared the final hurdle to restart the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world’s largest, after the Niigata prefectural assembly approved the move on Monday. The decision marks a major shift in Japan’s energy policy, 15 years after the Fukushima disaster, Qazinform News Agency cites WAM.
Located about 220 kilometers northwest of Tokyo, the plant was shut down along with 54 other reactors nationwide following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi plant, in what became the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
The approval allows Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to restart the first of seven reactors on January 20, with a capacity of 1.36 gigawatts, as part of efforts to reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels.
With a total capacity of 8.2 gigawatts, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa can power millions of homes. Plans call for another unit to be online by 2030, adding to the 14 reactors already restarted out of 33 deemed operable in Japan.
As written before, Japan resumed the controlled discharge of treated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after temporarily halting operations due to a strong earthquake in northeastern Japan.
