JAPAN NEWS





 

Niigata Prefecture Gov. Hideyo Hanazumi has told relevant parties that he intends to approve the restart of Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in the prefecture, according to sources.

He will announce his final decision soon.

The governor will submit a supplementary budget bill covering the costs of the restart to the prefectural assembly when it convenes on Dec. 2. If the bill were to pass, the path would be cleared for Hanazumi to inform the national government of his decision.

That would constitute “local consent,” which TEPCO is required to obtain before moving to the next step in the restart process.

With Kashiwazaki City and Kariwa Village, the municipalities that host the plant, having already indicated that they are for restarting the plant, the focus has been on the governor’s decision.

If the station were to be restarted, it would be the first TEPCO nuclear plant to resume operations since 2011, when a major accident occurred at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake.

According to sources, the governor indicated to prefectural assembly members and others around mid-November that he plans to announce his approval as early as Friday.

“I hope to reach a conclusion and speak about it soon,” Hanazumi said at a regular press conference on Wednesday. “There’s nothing else I feel I need to see or hear before making my decision.”

Operations have been halted at all seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant since March 2012.

The national government and TEPCO aim to restart the No. 6 and No. 7 reactors.

Technical preparations for restarting the No. 6 reactor were completed on Oct. 28.