Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has allowed the Japanese power utility TEPCO to load fuel in the idle reactor 7 (1,315 MW) at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant north-west of Tokyo. TEPCO will still need to complete additional inspections and to secure approval from the local governor to restart the reactor that has been offline since 2011.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant consists of five 1,067 MW (1,100 MW gross) boiling water reactors (BWR) commissioned between 1980 and 1994 and two 1,315 MW (1,356 MW gross) advanced boiling water reactors (ABWR) commissioned in 1996 and 1997. All have been idle since the Fukushima disaster in March 2011. In March 2021, the NRA banned TEPCO from restarting unit 7 over security reasons, as TEPCO had been unable to detect unauthorized access at 15 points because of equipment glitches; the ban was removed in December 2023 after the company implemented improvement measures.
TEPCO is now seeking to restart the two most recent reactors, namely Kashiwazaki-Kariwa 6 and 7 reactors, and in early April 2024, the company submitted a plan to the NRA to begin fuel loading at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa-7 as of 15 April 2024. Though no restart date has been released, this proposed fuel loading would pave the way for a resumption of operations.
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