TEPCO’s just-restarted nuclear plant to suspend operations after alarm was set off
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TEPCO employees restart Unit 6 at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant on Jan 21, 2026.
PHOTO: AFP
TOKYO – Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) is shutting down a reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant after an alarm was triggered during control rod withdrawal operations following its restart.
The reactor is the first to be restarted by TEPCO since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster
Earlier on Jan 22, the operator said it suspended control rod withdrawal operations at the just-restarted No. 6 unit of the plant in Niigata Prefecture, north-west of Tokyo.
TEPCO said it is looking into what happened. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said the reactor is stable, adding that there are no safety problems.
Control rods are used to adjust the nuclear fission of a reactor. No abnormal levels of radioactivity were detected around the seven-unit complex, according to the Niigata prefectural government.
The alarm was triggered at 12.28am on Jan 22 (11.28pm on Jan 21, Singapore time) after equipment to manoeuvre the control rods apparently had an issue, according to TEPCO.
The No. 6 unit was reactivated at 7.02pm on Jan 21 and reached criticality, a controlled self-sustaining nuclear fission chain reaction, around 90 minutes later. REUTERS
