Japan’s TEPCO Restarts Nuclear Reactor for First Time Since Fukushima Disaster in 2011

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

TEPCO put online 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 process was delayed from January 20 as TEPCO was investigating an alarm malfunction. As of early Wednesday, the equipment in question was functioning normally, TEPCO said.

The restart is “a major turning point” for the government, said Filippo Pedretti, a nuclear and thermal power analyst with Japan NRG in Tokyo.

“It signals the end of the post-Fukushima nuclear stalemate and reaffirms the importance of the atom for a stable power supply,” he said. “If even TEPCO, the utility involved in the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, can restart its most important plant, other facilities can follow.”

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.

After setbacks in its offshore wind roll-out and inflation pressure from fossil fuel imports, Japan is switching its attention to nuclear power again to boost energy security and reduce gas and coal purchases.

Commodity analysts at Kpler expect liquefied natural gas imports by Japan, one of the world’s top buyers along with China, to drop by 4 million metric tons in 2026 from a year earlier to 62 million tons due to higher nuclear power availability and if reactor No. 6 comes commercially online early this year.

“The importance of restarting reactor (No. 6) is increasing from the perspective of controlling electricity supply and demand, electricity tariffs and securing decarbonized power sources,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said on Wednesday.

Test for the Industry

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa’s restart, the first for TEPCO since the Fukushima disaster, is a major test for the entire Japanese nuclear power industry, as six reactors operated by other utilities, including Chubu Electric Power Co., are awaiting regulatory decisions on their potential restarts.

The developments are also in focus as Japan seeks to boost cooperation with the U.S., its closest ally, on new-generation nuclear reactors and SMRs, with the global atomic industry largely dominated by China and Russia.

This month, Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA)said it would order Chubu Electric to provide a detailed report on falsified seismic data and pause a review of the utility’s application to restart Hamaoka, its only atomic plant, as public support for greater usage of nuclear power remains divided.

“While other reactors are unlikely to be halted because of this issue, the NRA may increase scrutiny of all utilities,” said Pedretti. “Confidence in nuclear operators is paramount.”

(Reporting by Katya Golubkova; additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi and Kaori Kaneko; editing by Jamie Freed, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Thomas Derpinghaus)

Photograph: The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Kashiwazaki, Niigata prefecture, northern Japan, on April 2021. (Kyodo News via AP, File)