Japanese authorities plan to bring the world’s most powerful nuclear power plant, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, into operation this fall, Bloomberg reported on May 13.
Japan intends to resume operation of the world’s most powerful nuclear power plant in the fall of 2024 after a hiatus of more than 10 years. This will allow the Japanese to reduce energy costs.
The facility’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power, plans to restart operation of the plant’s nearly 1.36-megawatt unit seven in October. In total, in the second half of 2025, five reactors from different nuclear power plants should be operational in the country. At the same time, according to experts, the current pace of nuclear energy production is not enough to meet the government’s goals, according to which Japan’s nuclear energy should account for about a fifth of the country’s energy balance by 2030.
In March 2024, IAEA specialists began inspecting the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant. The IAEA has inspected equipment and infrastructure relevant to defense against terrorist attacks. In recent years, it is in this area where several serious inconsistencies have been identified. This effectively led to the plant being banned from operation in 2021.
The Japanese nuclear regulator lifted the ban on the plant’s operation at the end of 2023, but its reactivation requires the consent of local authorities. The IAEA is expected to help convince them of the facility’s safety and ultimately resolve the issue of resuming its operation.
The Japanese nuclear power plant “Kashiwazaki-Kariwa” is located on the shores of the Sea of Japan in the city of Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture. It is the largest nuclear power plant in the world in terms of installed capacity, which exceeds 8.2 thousand MW. The Japanese government has decided to review its policy of abandoning the construction of new nuclear power plants and intensify efforts to reactivate reactors that were closed after the accident at the Fukushima-1 plant in 2011. The list includes the sixth and seventh units of the plant Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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