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Japan PM Kishida to hold ministerial meeting on Tepco nuclear plant reboot

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stated on Tuesday the relevant ministers will meet next week to talk about actions needed to secure local authorization for restarting Tokyo Electric Power's KashiwazakiKariwa nuclear reactor.

Last December, the nationwide nuclear regulator lifted an operational ban enforced in 2021 on the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in northern Japan due to security breaches, enabling Tepco to work towards acquiring regional permission to reboot.

Tepco has actually aspired to bring the world's largest nuclear power plant back online to slash operating costs, but still requires local permission.

The operator and the government must interact to acquire regional neighborhood assistance for the reboot, Kishida informed the Green Change execution conference, a government official stated.

Kishida, who will step down in September, said: I will make every effort throughout my remaining term to advance the green transformation, including preparing for the reboot of a nuclear reactor in eastern Japan, according to public broadcaster NHK.

It is uncommon for a ministerial conference to focus on a particular power plant.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata prefecture has actually been offline considering that 2012, following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster, which resulted in the shutdown of all nuclear plants in Japan at the time.

While Tepco received in 2017 preliminary regulatory approval to reboot two reactors of the plant, it had actually not obtained regional authorization.

Tepco requires approval from Niigata prefecture governor to resume operations. In March, the prefecture's guv said that more talks were required over the possible reboot of the plant.

Japan has actually been able to restart just 12 reactors because 2011, with many operators still going through a re-licensing procedure to adhere to more stringent safety standards enforced after the 2011 Fukushima catastrophe.

(source: Reuters)