Tepco to Restart Japan’s Biggest Nuclear Plant in January
(Bloomberg) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to restart the world’s largest nuclear power plant next month, marking the Japanese utility’s return to atomic energy nearly 15 years after the Fukushima disaster.
Tepco will reopen the No. 6 reactor at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Niigata prefecture on Jan. 20, Tomoaki Kobayakawa, the company’s president, told reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday.
“I believe that reducing electricity generated from fossil fuels will have economic benefits,” Kobayakawa said in response to a question about the impact on Tepco’s operations. The restart holds enormous significance for the company, which was in charge of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant when it suffered a meltdown after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The restart of the Kashiwazaki Kariwa facility — which was formally approved by the local government earlier this week — is also a watershed moment for Japan, which eschewed nuclear power following that disaster. The Japanese government is once more embracing atomic energy as a tool to cut carbon emissions and achieve energy security.
Japan’s renewed appetite for nuclear power mirrors an increase in global support for the energy source, particularly as governments and companies seek stable and clean electricity to run vast data centers and AI operations. Tech giants like Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. have secured agreements with atomic energy providers in the US.
The Nikkei reported on Dec. 22 that Tepco is also considering developing a data center near the Kashiwazaki Kariwa facility. Tepco said in a statement that it had no such plans at this time.
Around a third of Japan’s 33 operable nuclear reactors have restarted under post-Fukushima safety rules over the last decade. Units No. 6 and No. 7 at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant were cleared for reopening by the national regulator as far back as 2017 but the resumption has faced a series of hurdles.
(Updates with quote from Tepco president in third paragraph.)
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