TEPCO Reactor Goes and Stops

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced on January 22nd that it stopped reactor #6 of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant. Although the reactor resumed its operation a day before for the first time in these 14 years, it lasted only 6 hours. It is unclear when it will restart. Fundamental skepticism is cast on TEPCO as an operator of nuclear power plant, as it repeats mismanagements in its effort to resume the reactors. 

Failing in taking necessary measures to prevent a disaster with earthquake, TEPCO is the perpetrator in severe accident of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011. It applied to examination for resumption of reactors #6 and #7 in Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, which is one of the biggest nuclear power plants in the world with 8.21 million kilowatts of output, in 2013 to clear stricter regulations laid out considering catastrophe of Fukushima in 2011.

 

However, TEPCO’s plan to restart reactors in Kashiwazaki-Kariwa has been rejected by Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) several times. NRA issued an effective order to stop operation in Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in 2021, when TEPCO failed in setting measures against possible terrorism for the power plant. Nevertheless, Governor of Niigata, Hideyo Hanazumi, approved resumption of reactor #6 in 2025.

 

TEPCO once set the date for resumption of reactor #6 on January 20th. But it postponed it on three days before, when it found a malfunction of control bars in the reactor. There are 205 control bars in the reactor to regulate reaction of nuclear fission. In the pretest for resumption, the system kept on alarming when it was withdrawn for starting nuclear fission. TEPCO delayed operation for a day.

 

It is questionable that one-day delay was enough. TEPCO revealed that the malfunction of control bars might have been occurring since the reactor began to work in 1996. Troubles in control bars were also found in June and August, 2025. In the pretest, TEPCO found wrong settings in 88 control bars out of 205. But it decided to restart the reactor #6 on January 21st. Then, it stopped again, despite 14-year “preparation” to restart the reactor.

 

TEPCO has not found the reason why the alarm for control bars keeps on beeping. It is going to check all the 205 control bars before restarting the reactor. Not only the company does not know the source of trouble, it could not show its estimation on how long it takes for them to restart the reactor with reassurance of safety of the nuclear power plant.

 

TEPCO repeatedly failed in examination of NRA for measures against terrorism. Commissioner of NRA at the time, Toyoshi Fukeda, once described that he wondered TEPCO was underestimating NRA. Although TEPCO achieved approval from NRA and the governor of Niigata, people around the nuclear power plant are deeply skeptical about TEPCO’s capability to control a nuclear facility.

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