TOKYO: Japan is preparing to restart the world’s largest nuclear power plant this week, according to local media reports.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility in Niigata province is expected to receive approval from local governor Hideyo Hanazumi, with an announcement scheduled for Friday.
Only one of the plant’s seven reactors will resume operations initially.
This marks the first nuclear restart for Tokyo Electric Power Company since the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Japan shut down all nuclear reactors following the Fukushima meltdown but has since restarted 14 reactors under stricter safety standards.
The government continues supporting nuclear power as a reliable energy source for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
In July, Kansai Electric announced plans to build Japan’s first new nuclear reactor since the Fukushima incident.
Meanwhile, decommissioning the Fukushima plant remains a decades-long challenge requiring remote-controlled robots due to dangerously high radiation levels.
