The No. 6 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture restarted on Tuesday after a scheduled brief halt for inspections. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings reactivated it at 6:25 a.m., finding no issues in turbine-related equipment. This marks the first electricity generation in about 14 years for the unit.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) brought the No. 6 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant back online on Tuesday at 6:25 a.m., following a suspension that began on Friday. The halt was part of procedures for a full-scale restart after an extended offline period, involving inspections that checked for abnormalities in turbine-related equipment. No issues were found, and the turbine began generating and sending electricity for the first time in about 14 years.
The reactor had initially restarted on the night of Jan. 21 after being suspended since March 2012. It was halted shortly afterward due to an issue with a device for moving control rods. Tepco later identified the problem as incorrect alarm settings, rectified it, and reactivated the unit on Feb. 9.
Tepco plans to ramp up the reactor's output to 100% and begin transmission to the Tokyo metropolitan area as early as this month. A final check is scheduled for March 18, after which commercial operations will start pending regulatory approval.
This restart occurs under stringent safety standards post-Fukushima, with Tepco emphasizing no anomalies detected during inspections.