Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co. will today restart its first nuclear reactor after the Fukushima disaster. Reactor #6 at the Kashiwasaki Kariwa power plant will be switched on after 7 pm local time, Bloomberg reported, citing a company news release.
The reactor has a capacity of 1.36 GW, Reuters noted in a report on the news. Kashiwasaki Kariwa is the world’s largest nuclear power plant, with seven reactors and a total capacity of 8.2 GW. All of those were shut down after the Fukushima meltdown.
Around 15,000 people died in March 2011, when a magnitude-9 quake caused a deadly tsunami and erased the coastline in the area of the nuclear power plant. Japan shut down all of its 54 nuclear reactors after the Fukushima meltdown. Of these, 33 remained operable, but their restart has taken years due to the surge in negative sentiment towards nuclear energy in the wake of the Fukushima tragedy. A total of 14 reactors have been restarted so far, and reactor #6 at Kashiwasaki Kariwa will be the 15th.
Japan was heavily dependent on its nuclear power plants because of its energy commodity scarcity. The shutdown of its nuclear power industry has arguably contributed to its economic woes over the past decade, as the energy import bill swelled significantly. A decarbonisation drive strengthens the argument in favor of restarting nuclear reactors.
As sentiment began to turn on nuclear energy, however, power utilities began to restart reactors. The latest restart got a positive vote from the regional authorities in the Niigata prefecture in late December. The vote came despite local opposition to the restart, which appears to be related to misgivings about Tepco’s ability to run the facility safely, even though the Fukushima disaster was the result of a tsunami rather than human error.
Japan now looks to have 20% of its electricity supply coming from nuclear power by 2040, up from below 10% now.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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