Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has applied for regulatory approval to load nuclear fuel into Unit 7 at its Kashiwazaki Kariwa power station in Niigata Prefecture, western Japan, from April 15 as it seeks to restart the facility.
Kashiwazaki Kariwa, the world’s biggest nuclear station with seven units and a net installed capacity of about 7,965 MW, has been offline since 2012 pending safety checks after the Fukushima disaster in 2011.
Tepco and the government are keen to restart Kashiwazaki Kariwa. Tepco said in June 2020 it was concentrating its resources on restarting the newer Units 6 and 7, which originally began commercial operation in 1996 and 1997 respectively.