TEPCO to Restart Glitch-Hit Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Reactor on Monday

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:52 JST, February 6, 2026

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. said Friday that it is set to restart the glitch-hit No. 6 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture once again on Monday.

The reactor’s commercial operation, which was originally planned to start on Feb. 26, is now expected to be set for March 18.

On Jan. 21, TEPCO restarted the reactor for the first time in about 14 years. However, an alarm indicated an abnormality during work to withdraw control rods, which regulate the chain reaction of nuclear fission. The company halted the reactor on Jan. 23 to determine the cause of the abnormalities.

Following an investigation with a maker of related equipment, TEPCO found a problem with the configuration of a function that detects abnormalities in the inverter used to regulate the motor that moves the control rods. This function was determined to be unnecessary for safety, so the settings were changed.

At a press conference on Friday, Takeyuki Inagaki, head of the plant, said, “We will continue to thoroughly confirm matters with relevant parties and proceed with each task carefully.”

TEPCO plans to withdraw the control rods to restart the reactor again on Monday. After that, it plans to proceed with inspections on equipment powered by steam generated in the reactor and then start full-scale power transmission on Feb. 16. If the Nuclear Regulation Authority ultimately confirms there are no problems, the reactor will go into commercial operation.