Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) restarted a reactor at the world’s biggest nuclear power plant Monday, after an issue last month delayed the process.
The No. 6 reactor at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Niigata Prefecture began to resume at 2 p.m., according to the company’s spokesperson. The unit’s power output will be gradually increased, with a goal of entering commercial operations on March 18. The utility was initially aiming for Feb. 26 before the hiccup.
Tepco, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant that suffered a meltdown accident in 2011, is facing public scrutiny to safely bring Kashiwazaki-Kariwa back online. Its resumption also comes as the government looks to reembrace atomic energy in an effort to curb carbon emissions, cut expensive fossil fuel imports and secure a stable source of power to meet rising electricity demand.
The reactor had restarted on Jan. 21, but an electrical problem inside the panel used to operate and monitor the unit’s control rods forced the firm to halt the process a day later. Tepco conducted further investigations and found issues with misinterpretation of the electric current of a motor inside a control panel.
“I still believe it was my responsibility to decide to shut the plant” to conduct deeper investigation into the issue, said Takeyuki Inagaki, the superintendent of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility during a news conference on Friday ahead of the latest restart. Tepco will proceed with each step of the restart carefully, he said.
Kashiwazaki Kariwa is Tepco’s only remaining operable nuclear facility. Reactor No. 6 is one of seven reactors at the site, and the first to be restarted. The No. 7 reactor has also received approval from the nation’s nuclear regulator to come back online.
