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Japan has approved the restart of the world’s largest nuclear power plant more than a decade after its closure following the Fukushima disaster, as the country returns to atomic energy to address rising power costs.
The governor of Niigata prefecture approved the reactivation of one reactor unit on Friday, clearing the last major hurdle to restarting the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant.
Japan retreated from nuclear power after a tsunami cut off cooling systems and triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011, sparking concerns over the industry’s safety.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, owned by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, uses a similar reactor design to the three Fukushima units that melted down. The plant’s potential output of close to 8,000 megawatts makes it the largest nuclear power plant in the world.
“For it to restart, it is a huge moment,” said Yukari Yamashita, managing director of The Institute of Energy Economics.
The restart of the plant, which will supply power to Tokyo and the broader Kanto region, comes as the country grapples with high energy costs triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and exacerbated by a weak yen. Japan imports the majority of its energy in the form of oil and gas.
Minoru Kihara, Japan’s chief government spokesperson, said on Friday that the restart was “extremely important from the point of view of lowering electricity prices and securing decarbonised sources of power”.
Before the Fukushima accident, nuclear power comprised close to 30 per cent of the country’s energy mix. It fell to almost zero after the disaster, but Japan has been gradually restarting reactors, reopening 14 out of 54 that were closed.
Another four are waiting for local governments to give the green light and eight more are pending regulatory approval, according to Yamashita.
Japan this year revised its stance towards nuclear and pledged to “maximise the use of decarbonised power sources such as renewables and nuclear”.
The country aims to source 20 per cent of its power supply from nuclear energy by 2040, up from about 8.5 per cent now. It is part of a goal to cut fossil fuels from almost 70 per cent of electricity generation in 2023 to 30 or 40 per cent.
This year, Kansai Electric Power became the first company since the Fukushima disaster to advance plans to build a new reactor in Japan.
In the years after the accident, Tepco faced heavy criticism for its corporate culture, leading to local opposition to a restart.
Hideyo Hanazumi, the governor of Niigata, on Friday said the question of what to do about the plant had been a major issue for residents for many years.
“At this moment, it still seems that opinions among the people on whether to restart the plant are divided. But we have decided that, by continuing to provide accurate information about nuclear power and on safety and disaster-prevention measures, public understanding will spread,” he said.
Tepco has taken measures to address concerns, including putting a renewed emphasis on biometric security checks at the site after regulators found failures in intrusion detection equipment and the misuse of identity cards.
