Fifteen years after the Fukushima disaster, Japan is preparing to restart the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant.
When all seven of its reactors are operational, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant will generate 8.2 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power millions of homes.
The plant occupies 4.2 square kilometers in Niigata Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast and is the world’s largest nuclear power plant, according to the British newspaper The Guardian.
Since 2012, the plant has not produced a single watt of electricity, after it was shut down, along with dozens of other reactors, following the triple meltdown in March 2011 at Fukushima Daiichi, the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant is located about 220 kilometers northwest of Tokyo and is operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the same company that was in charge of the Fukushima facility when a tsunami overwhelmed its defenses, causing a power outage that led to the meltdown of three of its reactors and forced 160,000 people to evacuate.
Against public opinion
The Guardian reported that weeks before the 15th anniversary of the accident and the wider tsunami disaster that killed an estimated 20,000 people along Japan’s northeastern coast, TEPCO is preparing to defy public opinion and restart one of the seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant.
TEPCO announced Monday that it is postponing the restart of reactor #6, which was scheduled for Tuesday, after an alarm malfunctioned during equipment testing over the weekend, according to NHK. The plant is expected to resume operations within the next few days.
The Guardian added that restarting reactor #6—which could boost electricity supply to the Tokyo area by about 2 percent—marks a significant milestone in Japan’s gradual return to nuclear power, a strategy the government says will help the country meet its emissions reduction targets and enhance its energy security.
But for many of the 420,000 people living within a 30-kilometer radius of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, who would have to be evacuated in the event of a Fukushima-like accident, TEPCO’s imminent return to nuclear power generation is a risky move.
The company said it had learned lessons from the Fukushima Daiichi disaster and had previously pledged to invest 100 billion yen (£470 million) in the Niigata Prefecture over the next decade in an effort to win over residents.
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