Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) has changed the schedule for restarting reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture, sources said Wednesday.
Tepco decided to put the No. 6 reactor back online ahead of the No. 7 unit, even though it is ready to be restarted, Takeyuki Inagaki, head of the plant, told a news conference in the Niigata village of Kariwa.
"It's difficult to relaunch the two reactors at the same time," he said. "As the person in charge of ensuring the safety of the nuclear plant, I find it necessary to concentrate on the No. 6 reactor."
Fully loaded with nuclear fuel last year, the No. 7 reactor is waiting to return to operation. However, its early restart is unlikely as the deadline for the construction of an on-site antiterrorism facility is coming in October and as there is no prospect for the restart without the facility to win local consent.
Now it is widely believed that Tepco cannot reactivate the reactor until August 2029, when the antiterror measure is scheduled to be in place.
On the other hand, the No. 6 unit, where fuel loading was completed Saturday, is expected to be technically ready for its restart in early August after safety checks. The company now aims to turn on the reactor soon because it is not required to build a similar on-site security facility until September 2029.
Regarding local consent, the prefectural government will hold public hearings by the end of August.
Niigata Gov. Hideyo Hanazumi will unlikely decide before autumn whether to give the nod to the restart of a Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactor, people familiar with the matter said.
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