Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings plans to restart the first unit of its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture, the world’s biggest, on Jan. 20, Tepco President Tomiaki Kobayakawa told reporters on Wednesday.
This week, the Niigata Prefectural Assembly gave a green light for the partial restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant. It will be the first for Tepco since its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant’s meltdown in 2011.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, located about 220 kilometers northwest of Tokyo, was among 54 reactors shut after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima No. 1 plant in the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
“As the company responsible for the Fukushima No. 1 accident, we will apply the reflections and lessons learned … We will proceed with the restart, the first in 14 years, sticking to safety as the top priority,” Kobayakawa said.
Japan has restarted 14 of the 33 reactors that remain operable as it tries to wean itself off imported fossil fuels, and in November outlined a public loan system proposal as it wants to double the share of nuclear power in its energy mix.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa’s total capacity is 8.2 gigawatts, enough to power a few million homes. January’s restart would bring one 1.36 GW unit online. Another unit of the same capacity is scheduled for restart around 2030.
Tepco may decommission some of its remaining five units, it has said.