Japanese regulator lifts veto on restarting world’s largest nuclear power plant

Japan’s nuclear regulator announced this Wednesday that it has lifted a safety ban on the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, considered the world’s largest by capacity, paving the way for the facility’s eventual restart.

Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) decided on Wednesday to lift a de facto ban it applied two years ago to the operation of the nuclear power plant located in Niigata, northwest of Tokyo, because it believed measures to prevent terrorist attacks were insufficient.

Japanese regulators have concluded that plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has improved its training on the issue after conducting more than four thousand hours of site inspections.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, with a capacity of about 8,212 megawatts, making it the world’s largest, has been shut down since the plant was shut down by Japanese authorities following the Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011, which led to a review of safety protocols at all of the country’s plants.

The Japanese government, TEPCO and other Japanese energy companies have pledged to reopen all of the country’s nuclear power plants to meet new safety standards, although in many cases the reopenings have been rejected by local communities or other obstacles.