Key Japanese official gives nod to restart of world’s biggest nuclear power plant

TOKYO - A Japanese regional governor on Nov 21 gave the green light for a partial restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world’s biggest, as Japan tries to revive its nuclear sector and reduce fossil fuel imports.

Approval by Niigata prefecture Governor Hideyo Hanazumi will remove the last major hurdle for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) to go ahead with plans to restart one or two of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa’s biggest reactors.

As electricity demand is set to grow due to data centre and semiconductor business expansion, “it would be difficult to stop something that passed the country’s regulatory standards without any rational reason”, Mr Hanazumi told a briefing.

Mr Hanazumi said he would need to seek the prefectural assembly’s vote of confidence on his decision during its regular session beginning on Dec 2.

Local residents’ concerns, continuous safety efforts and emergency response remained among key issues to be addressed, he said.

Mr Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s industry minister, said that the approval, once endorsed by the assembly, would cover reactors No.6 and No.7, the two biggest at the plant.

Unit No.6 alone сould improve the supply-demand situation in the energy-hungry Tokyo area by 2 per cent, he said.

Together, the two reactors produce 2,710 megawatts of electricity, or about a third of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa’s total capacity of 8,212 MW.

Tepco has said it plans to decommission some of the other five units at the facility.

In October, Tepco finished checks at the No.6 reactor – its priority for restart – after fuel loading, saying at the time that it had confirmed the main systems required for reactor startup were operating properly.

A restart would be the first for Tepco since the March 2011 tsunami destroyed its Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

It would also be a breakthrough for Japan, which after the disaster shut all 54 nuclear reactors in operation at the time, leaving it heavily reliant on fossil fuel imports vulnerable to production shocks and supply disruptions.

Niigata residents remain divided between those supporting the restart and those opposing it, Mr Hanazumi said, adding that providing accurate information about safety measures should help to raise awareness among those living in the area.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who took office in October, has said she supports more nuclear relaunches to strengthen energy security and to address the cost of imported energy, which accounts for 60 per cent to 70 per cent of Japan’s electricity generation.

Japan spent 10.7 trillion yen (S$89.29 billion) in 2024 on imported liquefied natural gas and coal, a tenth of its total import costs.

“The restart... is extremely important from the perspective of reducing ... electricity prices, and securing decarbonised power sources,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said on Nov 21.

Of the 54 reactors in operation pre-Fukushima, Japan has restarted 14 of the 33 that remain operable.

Commodity analysts at Kpler expect LNG imports by Japan, the world’s second-biggest buyer after China, to drop by 4 million tonnes to 62 million tonnes for 2026 on higher nuclear power availability and if Unit No.6 comes online in early 2026.

In July, Kansai Electric Power, Japan’s top nuclear power operator, said it would begin conducting surveys to investigate building a reactor in western Japan that would be the first new unit since the Fukushima disaster.

Tepco shares closed 1.9 per cent down on Nov 21, paring losses after Japan’s nuclear watchdog said on Nov 20 that confidential documents were mishandled at the plant.

The Nikkei index dropped 2.4 per cent.

Tepco continues to pay compensation for the Fukushima Daiichi disaster of 2011, the world’s worst nuclear power accident since Chernobyl in 1986. REUTERS