Japan is preparing to bring the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant back online next week, reviving operations at the facility for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The plant’s chief, Takeyuki Inagaki, confirmed at a press briefing on Friday that the reactor is scheduled to restart on February 9. The announcement comes after a short-lived restart attempt last month was halted when a monitoring alarm sounded during testing.
The reactor had initially been restarted on January 21 but was shut down the following day. According to Inagaki, the alarm was triggered due to a configuration error that caused it to react to minor and harmless fluctuations in an electrical cable’s current. The issue has since been corrected.
He said the alarm settings have been adjusted and the reactor is now considered safe to operate. Full commercial operations are expected to begin on or after March 18, subject to a final safety inspection.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), is the world’s largest nuclear power plant by generating capacity. It has remained idle for more than a decade after Japan suspended nuclear power generation in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that led to a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Only one of the site’s seven reactors is involved in the current restart plan.
Japan’s government has been pushing to revive nuclear power as part of efforts to cut reliance on fossil fuels, meet its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, and address growing electricity demand, including from energy-intensive technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Despite regulatory approval, the restart continues to face strong opposition locally. A survey conducted by Niigata prefecture in September showed that about 60 percent of residents oppose restarting the plant, while 37 percent support it.
Concerns over seismic safety remain central to the opposition. In January, critics submitted a petition with nearly 40,000 signatures, warning that the plant sits near an active fault zone and recalling damage caused by a powerful earthquake that struck the area in 2007.
