15 years after the disaster "Fukushima"..Tokyo is preparing to operate a station "Kashiwazaki"

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TOKYO, December 22 / WAM / Japan has removed the last obstacle to the resumption of operation of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, the largest nuclear plant in the world, after approval by the Niigata Prefecture Parliament on Monday, representing a radical shift in Japanese energy policy 15 years after the Fukushima disaster.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa station is located 220 kilometers northwest of Tokyo, and had stopped working as part of a closure decision that included 54 reactors, following the devastating earthquake and tsunami waves that struck the Fukushima Daiichi station, causing a nuclear disaster that was classified as the worst in the world since the Chernobyl accident.

This approval paves the way for Tokyo Electric Power Company – the former operator of the stricken Fukushima plant – to restart the first of seven reactors on January 20, with a capacity of 1.36 gigawatts, as part of a plan to reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels.

The total capacity of the station is 8.2 gigawatts, sufficient to supply millions of homes with electricity, with plans to introduce an additional unit by 2030, joining the 14 reactors that Japan has restarted out of 33 operational reactors.

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