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Japan's industry ministry seeks regional assistance to reboot Tepco nuclear plant

Japan's industry ministry will send senior officials to Niigata prefecture on Thursday to seek local assistance for rebooting Tokyo Electric Power's. ( Tepco's) KashiwazakiKariwa nuclear power station, the. minister said on Tuesday.

The relocation comes after Japan's nuclear power regulator in. December raised an operating ban on the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa. plant, allowing it to work towards getting regional approval to. reboot.

Tepco has been eager to bring the world's biggest atomic. power plant back online to cut operating costs, but that requirements. the approval of the city governments of Niigata prefecture,. Kashiwazaki city and Kariwa village, where it lies.

Market minister Ken Saito stated he called the heads of the. city governments late Monday to describe the ministry's nuclear. power policy, and would dispatch Yoshifumi Murase, commissioner. of the Firm for Natural Resources and Energy, and others to. Niigata to seek their support in getting regional permission.

We intend to continue carefully, considering local. scenarios, Saito told a press conference on Tuesday.

Murase will satisfy Niigata Guv Hideyo Hanazumi while. another senior official will meet the heads of Kashiwazaki city. and Kariwa town.

Asked when the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant might restart, Saito. stated he could not comment on the timing.

With a capacity of 8,212 megawatts (MW), the plant has actually been. offline because 2012 after the Fukushima disaster a year earlier. caused the shutdown of all nuclear plants in Japan at the time.

Resources-poor Japan aspires to bring more of its nuclear. plants online to reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels. such as melted natural gas

(source: Reuters)