8 May (NucNet): Unit 7 at Japan’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant will be restarted tomorrow after owner and operator the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said it had today received final approvals from local authorities.
Tepco said it now had approval for a restart from Niigata prefecture governor Hirohiko Izumida, the mayor of Kashiwazaki city, Hiroshi Aida, and the mayor of Kariwa village, Hiroo Shinada.
In response to the approvals, Tepco plans to restart the 1,315-megawatt boiling water reactor unit tomorrow for a functional test to confirm its soundness.
All seven units at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant have been shut down since a major earthquake struck the region in July 2007.
The earthquake led to the automatic, safe shut-down of units 3, 4 and 7. Units 1, 5 and 6 were already shut down at the time of the quake for periodic inspections. Unit 2 was technically undergoing a periodic inspection and start-up operations had just begun, but the unit was also shut down safely.
>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)
IAEA Team Completes Third Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Mission (News in Brief No. 140, 11 December 2008)
Work Stepped Up Towards Restart Of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Unit (News in Brief No. 18, 10 February 2009)
Governor Approves Restart Of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Unit 7 (News in Brief No. 55, 7 May 2009)
