Operator Tepco says reactor is stable and there is no radioactive impact
The restart of Unit 6 at Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power station in western Japan has been suspended, a day after the process began, operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said.
Workers at Kashiwazaki Kariwa-6, which has been offline since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, began restarting the unit on 21 January.
But the process had to be suspended hours later due to a malfunction related to control rods, which are essential to safely starting up and shutting down reactors, Tepco said. The duration of the shutdown was still unknown.
Tepco said there was no safety issue from the glitch and it was checking the situation while suspending the restart operation. The utility later said it was putting the reactor back into shutdown for a fuller examination.
“We were investigating the malfunctioning electrical equipment,” spokesperson Takashi Kobayashi told the AFP news agency.
The reactor “is stable and there is no radioactive impact outside”, he said.
Unit 6 is a 1,315-MW boiling water reactor unit that originally began commercial operation in 1996. Fuel loading for its restart was completed in June.
The plant’s restart would mean Japan has returned 15 units to service since the Fukushima disaster.
Kashiwazaki Kariwa is the world’s largest nuclear power station by capacity. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, its seven boiling water reactor units have a combined net capacity of 7,965 MW.
The facility served as an important energy source to supply electricity to the Tokyo metropolitan area before the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident at Fukushima-Daiichi.
Tepco wants to bring the station back online and said in 2020 it was concentrating its resources on restarting the newer Units 6 and 7.
Units 6 and 7 at Kashiwazaki Kariwa have been offline since March 2012 and August 2011 respectively.
