Reactor will remain in cold shutdown because of missed deadline
Japanese utility Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said it plans to remove fuel from Unit 7 at its Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power station in Niigata Prefecture in western Japan due to delays in the reactor’s restart.
The Tokyo-based industry group Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (Jaif) reported that the unit will remain in a cold shutdown state because construction of special safety facilities required after the 2011 Fukushima disaster will not be completed by the 13 October 2025 deadline.
Jaif said Tepco had submitted to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) a revised pre-service inspection application, reflecting adjustments to the schedule and milestones. and formally notified the NRA that the unit will remain in cold shutdown.
It said the company is expected to file additional applications for changes to pre-service inspections in line with construction progress on the special safety facilities.
According to Jaif, both Unit 6 and Unit 7 have already cleared the NRA’s safety examinations and Tepco had initially prioritised the restart of Unit 7.
The company will now instead focus on restarting Unit 6. Fuel loading at Unit 6 was completed in June.
According to Tepco, the removal of Unit 7’s 872 fuel assemblies will begin in October and take about two weeks, with the assemblies transferred to the spent fuel pool for safe storage.
Kashiwazaki Kariwa is one of the world’s largest nuclear power stations. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, its seven boiling water reactor units have a combined net capacity of 7,965 MW.
Kashiwazaki Kariwa served as an important energy source to supply electricity to the Tokyo metropolitan area before the 2011 earthquake and nuclear accident at Fukushima-Daiichi.
Tepco wants to bring the station back online and said in 2020 it was concentrating its resources on restarting the newer Units 6 and 7, which originally began commercial operation in 1996 and 1997.
Units 6 and 7, both 1,315-MW boiling water reactor units, have been offline since March 2012 and August 2011 respectively.
