TOKYO, Jan 22 (NNN-NHK) – Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), yesterday, restarted a reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, in Niigata Prefecture, despite local opposition, marking the first operated by TEPCO to go back online, since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Reactor No. 6, at the seven-unit complex, about 220 kilometres north-west of Tokyo, began its nuclear reaction shortly after 7.00 p.m. local time. The utility said, it received approval from the country’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, to conduct trial operations earlier in the day.
TEPCO initially planned to bring the reactor back online on Tuesday, but had to postpone due to an alarm malfunction during a test operation.
Despite a survey showing that residents were split over the resumption, Niigata Governor, Hideyo Hanazumi, gave the green-light for plant restart last Nov, and the prefectural assembly followed up a month later.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, the world’s biggest nuclear power station, capable of producing 8.2 gigawatts of electricity, when at full capacity, was among 54 reactors shut, following the Mar, 2011, core meltdowns at TEPCO’s tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant.– NNN-NHK