Japan Governor Seen Approving Tepco Nuclear Plant Restart
(Bloomberg) -- The governor of Japan’s Niigata prefecture is set to approve the restart of the world’s biggest nuclear power plant as soon as Friday, the Nikkei reported, a verdict that holds huge significance for the entire country.
Hideyo Hanazumi will hold a press conference where he will announce his decision and that he will consult with Niigata prefecture’s assembly, the Nikkei reported, without saying where it got the information. The Japanese newspaper said if the assembly also agrees, he would officially greenlight the restart.
The governor’s endorsement would be the last hurdle Tokyo Electric Power Co. must clear before restarting the Kashiwazaki Kariwa facility in northeastern Japan.
The proposed restart of the plant’s No. 6 unit would mark the first time that Tepco has operated a nuclear facility since the Fukushima disaster in 2011. Hanazumi was speaking a day after visiting the Fukushima Dai-chi Nuclear Power Plant, also operated by Tepco and the site of the meltdown almost 15 years ago.
“I would like to make a decision and express it soon,” Hanazumi said at his regular weekly media briefing on Wednesday. No specific timing for the decision has been set, he said.
If approved, the restart of Kashiwazaki Kariwa – also known as KK – would be a watershed moment for a country that endured the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. Resumption of the facility would also be a shot in the arm for the Japanese government’s aim of expanding nuclear power capacity to reduce imports of fossil fuels and meet decarbonization goals.
Tepco’s shares closed down 1.4% on Wednesday in Tokyo after swinging between gains and losses earlier in the session.
That a single local politician holds so much power over the restart of key energy infrastructure illustrates the challenge Japan faces in reembracing atomic energy. Just a third of the nation’s 33 operable reactors have restarted under post-Fukushima safety rules over the last decade. Units No. 6 and No. 7 at KK were cleared by the national regulator in 2017.
While not enshrined in law, utilities typically seek local approvals before resuming operations of a nuclear plant. Regional courts have also held up restarts, while onerous safety upgrades required by the regulator have resulted in delays.
Hanazumi, who took office in 2018, has spent years balancing public skepticism with national pressure to resume operations. KK has been dogged by a series of security lapses — from workers using stolen IDs to sensitive documents being lost — that deepened distrust in both Tepco and nuclear oversight.
The debate over the restart “calls into question his resolve as a politician, and how far will he go to do this,” said Ryugo Tsuchida, a lawmaker for the Niigata prefecture assembly. “He is naturally under pressure from the national government.”
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that KK’s revival is “extremely important” for Japan’s energy security and climate efforts. Officials from Tokyo have been dispatched to Niigata over the past year to stress the project’s national importance. KK is also supported by the two towns that host the facility.
Still, local resistance remains strong. A prefectural survey this month showed 61% of residents living within 30 kilometers of the plant believe conditions for restarting haven’t been met. Critics note Niigata itself won’t receive any of the power generated — it will flow to Tokyo instead.
(Updates with details about the governor from the eighth paragraph.)
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