ISTANBUL

Japan on Wednesday restarted a reactor at the world’s largest nuclear power plant, marking the facility’s first return to operation since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, according to Kyodo News.

The 8.2-gigawatt Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility in Niigata Prefecture, which houses seven reactors, has been idle since 2012 following the tsunami-triggered accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant uses the same type of boiling water reactors as the Fukushima facility and is operated by the same company, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).
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The restart marks the first reactor brought back online by the operator since the 2011 accident.

The plant, the world’s largest nuclear power facility when fully operational, remained offline after a regular inspection in 2012 due to public safety concerns following the Fukushima disaster and doubts over TEPCO’s ability to safely manage the complex.

The restart, originally scheduled for Tuesday, was delayed after a last-minute control-rod alarm malfunction occurred during a test.

However, the No. 6 reactor was brought back online on Wednesday after TEPCO reported to nuclear regulators that a final inspection of the control rods had been successfully completed earlier in the day.

This marks the 15th reactor restart since the Fukushima accident among Japan’s 33 operable nuclear reactors, as the government seeks to maximize the use of nuclear power.