Tepco Plans Nuclear Reactor Restart Next Week, Kyodo Says

(Bloomberg) -- Japanese utility Tokyo Electric Power Co. is planning to restart a nuclear reactor at its Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant early next week, according to a report from Kyodo, after a setback halted the process last month.

Tepco initially restarted the No. 6 reactor at the facility in Niigata prefecture on Jan. 21, but an electrical issue forced the company to halt the process the next day. Kashiwazaki Kariwa is Tepco’s remaining commercial nuclear plant, and its resumption is viewed as a milestone after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Kyodo wasn’t specific on the restart timing and cited a person it didn’t identify. Separately, local newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported that the reactor could be restarted as early as Monday, also citing a person it didn’t identify.

Takeyuki Inagaki, the superintendent at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant, will hold a press conference in Niigata at 10 a.m. local time on Friday to discuss findings from an investigation related to the halt, according to a Tepco spokesperson, who declined to comment on the Kyodo and Asahi reports.

The specific cause of the issue that led to the initial restart being halted has yet to be identified, Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shinsuke Yamanaka said during a regular press conference on Wednesday. Last month, a Tepco spokesperson said it was related to an electrical part inside the control panel used to operate and monitor the reactor’s control rods.

Tepco, the operator of the Fukushima facility that suffered the meltdown, is facing public scrutiny to safely bring Kashiwazaki Kariwa back online. It also comes as the Japanese government looks to a nuclear return in an effort to curb carbon emissions, cut expensive fossil fuel imports and secure a clean, stable source of power to meet rising electricity demand.

(Updates with comment from Tepco spokesperson in fourth paragraph on Friday press conference.)

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