Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant: TEPCO Must Make Every Effort Toward Restarting Reactors

Editorial

16:56 JST, October 18, 2025

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. has announced that it will consider decommissioning the Nos. 1 and 2 reactors of its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture as part of its bid to restart other reactors at the site. The company has also presented a plan to contribute about ¥100 billion in funding to the prefectural government.

TEPCO must make every effort to gain understanding from the areas that host the complex.

Following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, it was decided that operations at all seven reactors would be suspended. TEPCO applied for reviews of the Nos. 6 and 7 reactors — the two newest — with the Nuclear Regulation Authority in 2013 and received approval in 2017.

At a prefectural assembly meeting, TEPCO President Tomoaki Kobayakawa said that his company will aim to restart the No. 6 reactor first. He shared TEPCO’s detailed measures probably because he judged that discussions on reactivating the reactors are entering the final stages.

The Kashiwazaki city government has expressed concerns over there being seven reactors in one place and called for TEPCO to make a clear plan for decommissioning at least one of them. To alleviate such anxieties, the company must present a steady path toward decommissioning.

The inexpensive electricity generated at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant is supplied to the Tokyo metropolitan area. It is not consumed in Niigata Prefecture, which is within Tohoku Electric Power Co.’s service area. This is why the areas around the plant are struggling to understand the benefits of the complex resuming power generation.

By announcing the unusual measure of providing the prefectural government with significant financial support, TEPCO apparently aims to show it can contribute to the prefecture through attracting businesses and generating more employment opportunities.

The restart of the TEPCO reactors is taking so long mostly due to a series of blunders made by the company.

In 2021, insufficient antiterrorism measures and other issues were uncovered at the plant, and the situation escalated to the point where the NRA issued a de facto ban on operations at the complex.

The interim findings of a survey conducted on residents in Niigata Prefecture, released on Oct. 1, found that nearly 70% said they were still worried about TEPCO being the operator of the plant. The company must take this seriously.

Gov. Hideyo Hanazumi plans to decide on whether to agree on reactivating the reactors as early as November, after taking into account the final findings of the survey. It is crucial for TEPCO to persistently promote how important it is for the plant to resume power generation activities.

Operations at 14 nuclear reactors in Japan have resumed since the 2011 earthquake, but all of TEPCO’s reactors remain suspended. It will be particularly significant if TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant where a nuclear accident occurred, restarts reactors.

With the advent of the artificial intelligence era, electricity demand will significantly increase, particularly from data centers. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant will play a critical role in terms of both promoting decarbonization and ensuring stable power supply.

Meanwhile, the government has said that it will fully cover the over ¥100 billion in costs for improving nearby roads that will be used as evacuation routes in case of a serious accident. From the perspective of national interest, the government should play a more active role in gaining broader public understanding of the significance of restarting the reactors.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Oct. 18, 2025)