Japan’s restart of the largest nuclear power plant has caused anxiety

According to Kyodo News reported on April 15th, Tokyo Electric Power Company plans to start loading nuclear fuel into the reactor of an idle nuclear power plant in northwest Tokyo on the 15th to prepare for the possibility of restarting the nuclear power plant.
According to the report, the Japan Atomic Energy Regulatory Commission approved the loading work of Unit 7 of the Kashiwazaki Yuki Nuclear Power Plant in Niigata Prefecture earlier that day, but the restart time is still uncertain.

TEPCO said that it plans to start operations at around 4 pm on the 15th.
The governor of Niigata Prefecture, Hideki Huajiao, has not yet made a statement on whether he will approve the restart of the reactor. It is rare for nuclear power plant operators to start filling reactors without local consent. Hideki Huajiao has been calling for extensive discussions on how to ensure the safety of residents in the event of a nuclear accident.

Since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in March 2011, reactors in other parts of Japan have been restarted only after obtaining local approval.
Because of its exposed safety defects, the Japan Atomic Energy Regulatory Commission issued a ban on its operation. The ban came into effect from April 2021 until it was lifted in December last year.

The nuclear power plant is composed of seven reactors, spanning Kashiwazaki City and Miyuki Village in Niigata Prefecture, with a total installed capacity of about 8,212 MW. It is one of the largest nuclear power plants in the world and the largest nuclear power plant in Japan.

In addition, on the 15th, when Unit 7 of Tokyo Electric Power Kashiwazaki Yuki Nuclear Power Plant began to fill with fuel, the anxiety in Niigata Prefecture, where it is located, warmed up. The memory of the destruction of houses caused by the earthquake in Nengden Peninsula is still close at hand, and now it seems that we should always worry about whether we can escape from the refuge in the face of the compound disaster of nuclear power plant accidents and natural disasters. Local residents have criticized it as "scheduled to restart long ago" and said "unable to agree". On the morning of the 15th, a protest was held in front of the Niigata headquarters of TEPCO in Niigata’s central district. (Compile/Xiong Wenyuan)