<figure id="attachment_3278447" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3278447" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3278447 size-full" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/b5c12357-afp__20241019__36jk3wu__v1__midres__japannuclearpoliticsclimateeconomy_cropped_1.webp" alt="" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3278447" class="wp-caption-text">The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station (back) is located in Kashiwazaki, in Japan’s Niigata Prefecture. (AFP pic)</figcaption></figure>
TOKYO: Japan switched on the world&#8217;s biggest nuclear power plant again today, its operator said, after an earlier attempt was quickly suspended due to a minor glitch.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in the Niigata region restarted 5am, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said in a statement.
A glitch with an alarm in January forced the suspension of its first restart since the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
The facility had been offline since Japan pulled the plug on nuclear power after a colossal earthquake and tsunami sent three reactors at the Fukushima atomic plant into meltdown.
However, now Japan is turning to atomic energy to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and meet growing energy needs from artificial intelligence.
Conservative Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who pulled off a thumping election victory on Sunday, has promoted nuclear power to energise the Asian economic giant.
TEPCO initially moved to start one of seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant on Jan 21 but shut it off the following day after an alarm from the monitoring system sounded.
The alarm had picked up slight changes to the electrical current in one cable even though these were still within a range considered safe, TEPCO officials told a press conference last week.
The firm has changed the alarm&#8217;s settings as the reactor is safe to operate.
The commercial operation will commence on or after March 18 after another comprehensive inspection, according to TEPCO officials.

MatchPoint Times

Japan restarts world’s biggest nuclear plant

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in the Niigata region restarted today, after an earlier attempt last month was suspended due to a minor glitch.

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