Tepco Suspends Loading Nuclear Fuel into Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Plant

Reuters

16:22 JST, April 17, 2024

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co is suspending the loading of nuclear fuel into a reactor at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power station, the utility firm said on Wednesday.

The loading work has been suspended since Wednesday morning after the company found an equipment problem while loading the nuclear fuel into the reactor No. 7, which can produce 1,356 megawatts (MW) of electricity. There are no safety-related issues, the company, known as Tepco, said in a statement.

Tepco on Monday started loading the fuel into the reactor at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa located in Nigata prefecture of northern Japan. It is the world’s biggest nuclear plant, capable of producing more than 8,000 MW of electricity when fully online.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant has been offline since 2012 after another Tepco plant in Fukushima was hit by a tsunami a year earlier which led to the shutdown of all nuclear plants in Japan at the time.