The nuclear debate, which Japan thought closed, returns to the scene. The recent authorization to reactivate Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, the largest atomic plant in the world, has set off alarms: citizen distrust, the shadow of Fukushima and doubts have surfaced about whether TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) is the right company to lead the country’s new energy stage.
Fifteen years of waiting for a reboot that didn’t even last a day. In Niigata, reactor number 6 went from complete silence to emergency shutdown in less than 24 hours. The failure, located in critical safety systems, has turned the great revival Japan’s energy sector in a lesson in technical fragility.
A slow giant. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa had not produced a single kilowatt since 2012. That closure was not an isolated event, but the shock wave of Fukushima in 2011, which put all reactors of similar design in the spotlight. But for TEPCO, this complex of seven units and more than 8,000 MW is much more than energy: it is its financial lifeline. According to estimates by Japan Forward, the electricity company needs these reactors to inject some 100 billion yen annually into its coffers, essential oxygen to pay the endless bill for the dismantling of Fukushima Daiichi.
The Japanese Government, under the command of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, has positioned this reopening as a strategic pillar. The goal is ambitious, meaning that nuclear energy represents 20% of the energy mix by 2040. This energy is necessary to power the new AI data centers and semiconductor factories, thus reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels, made more expensive by the fall of the yen and current geopolitics.
Chronicle of a fleeting reboot. The reactivation process of reactor No. 6 was marked by setbacks even before it began. The restart, initially scheduled for Tuesday, January 20, had to be postponed one day after it was detected that an alarm designed to warn of the accidental removal of control rods did not work during tests, according to The Japan Times. After correcting this error, operations formally began on Wednesday at 7:02 pm. At 8:28 pm, the reactor reached “critical state” (sustained nuclear fission). However, the celebration in TEPCO’s control rooms – where staff tensely monitored screens – was short-lived.
At 12:28 a.m. Thursday, just 16 hours after the start, an alarm sounded again. This time it indicated a failure in the engine control panel that operates one of the reactor control rods (the devices that regulate or stop the nuclear reaction). TEPCO attempted to replace electrical components and inverters, but the anomaly persisted. Given the uncertainty, the company announced a “planned temporary shutdown” to reinsert the control rods and stop the fission, a process that concluded Friday morning. “We do not assume that the investigation will be resolved in one or two days; at this time we cannot say how many days it will take,” admitted Takeyuki Inagaki, director of the plant, at a press conference.
Security under suspicion. Although TEPCO maintains that the reactor remains under control and without leaks to the outside, the incident has served to poke into a wound that was never closed. It is not only the present that is worrying, but a tarnished history: just five years ago, the Financial Times was already focusing on the plant after a security scandal where an employee circumvented access controls using a foreign ID, revealing the fragility of its surveillance systems.
However, distrust does not only fall on TEPCO. The Japanese nuclear sector is experiencing a systemic credibility crisis. Earlier this month, Chubu Electric admitted to manipulating seismic data to minimize the impact of possible earthquakes at its Hamaoka plant, prompting the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) to call the act “scandalous” and suspend its safety review after a decade of paperwork.
A divided society in Niigata. Outside the plant and at the TEPCO headquarters, protesters like Yumiko Abe, 73, express their indignation: “Electricity is for Tokyo, but we run the risk in Kashiwazaki. It makes no sense.”
The figures support this discomfort. According to polls cited by the South China Morning Post, around 60% of Niigata residents oppose the restart. Furthermore, 70% of citizens fear that TEPCO will not be able to manage an emergency based on its history. On the other hand, prominent seismologists warn in the Financial Times that the plant is located near an area of very high seismic risk where a large earthquake could cause billions in damage.
The future of the atom in Japan. The path to full operation of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is once again up in the air. As TEPCO makes 3.1 trillion yen in cost cuts to fund Fukushima decommissioning, the NRA has promised strict on-site inspections to verify corrective actions following this latest failure.
Experts such as Dr Florentine Koppenborg suggest that this “nuclear renaissance” could be just “a drop in the ocean” as security costs have soared and public trust remains at rock bottom. Japan is at an energy crossroads: the urgency to decarbonize and feed its technology industry collides head-on with the memory of a disaster that, 15 years later, is still very present. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa giant has shown that, in nuclear energy, the distance between strategic success and technical failure is measured in the sound of a single alarm.
Image | IAEA Imagebank
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