Restart of No 6 reactor at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant suspended after malfunction associated to manage rods.
Revealed On 22 Jan 2026
The restart of a reactor on the world’s largest nuclear energy plant has been suspended in Japan, a day after the method started, its operator, which additionally manages the wrecked Fukushima plant, mentioned. However the reactor stays “secure”.
The No 6 reactor on the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in north-central Japan – closed because the 2011 Fukushima catastrophe – reactivated on Wednesday as plant employees began eradicating neutron-absorbing management rods from the core to start out secure nuclear fission.
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However the course of needed to be suspended hours later on account of a malfunction associated to manage rods, that are important to soundly beginning up and shutting down reactors, the Tokyo Electrical Energy Firm Holdings (TEPCO) mentioned. The period of the shutdown was nonetheless unknown.
TEPCO mentioned there was no security challenge from the glitch and it was checking the state of affairs whereas suspending the restart operation. The utility later mentioned it was placing the reactor again into shutdown for a fuller examination.
“We have been investigating the malfunctioning electrical gear,” spokesperson Takashi Kobayashi informed the AFP information company.
The reactor “is secure and there’s no radioactive impression exterior”, he mentioned.
Management rods are a tool used to manage the nuclear chain response within the reactor core, which might be accelerated by barely withdrawing them, or slowed down or stopped utterly by inserting them deeper.
The restart, initially scheduled for Tuesday, had been pushed again after one other technical challenge associated to the rods’ removing was detected final weekend – an issue that was resolved on Sunday, in accordance with TEPCO.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the world’s greatest nuclear energy plant by potential capability, though only one reactor of seven was restarted.
The ability was taken offline when Japan pulled the plug on nuclear energy after a colossal earthquake and tsunami despatched three reactors on the Fukushima atomic plant into meltdown in 2011.
Nevertheless, resource-poor Japan now needs to revive atomic vitality to cut back its reliance on fossil fuels, obtain carbon neutrality by 2050 and meet rising vitality wants from synthetic intelligence.
Fourteen different nuclear reactors have restarted throughout Japan since 2011, however the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, about 220 kilometres (135 miles) northwest of Tokyo, is the primary TEPCO-run unit to renew manufacturing.
The corporate additionally operates the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant, now being decommissioned.
A restart of the No 6 reactor may generate a further 1.35 million kilowatts of electrical energy, sufficient to energy greater than 1 million households within the capital area.
Public opinion in Niigata is deeply divided: about 60 % of residents oppose the restart, whereas 37 % assist it, in accordance with a survey performed in September.
“It’s Tokyo’s electrical energy that’s produced in Kashiwazaki, so why ought to the individuals right here be put in danger? That is unnecessary,” Yumiko Abe, a 73-year-old resident, informed AFP this week throughout a protest in entrance of the plant.
Earlier this month, seven teams opposing the restart submitted a petition signed by practically 40,000 individuals to TEPCO and Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, saying that the plant sits on an lively seismic fault zone and noting it was struck by a robust quake in 2007.
