Tepco resumes commercial operations at Niigata plant for first time in 14 years
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) resumed commercial operations of a reactor at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant on Thursday afternoon, marking the first commercial restart by the company since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.The No. 6 reactor at the plant in Niigata Prefecture entered full commercial operation at 4 p.m., about 14 years after it was last in service. The restart of commercial operations, initially scheduled for late February, comes roughly 50 days later following a series of technical issues after the reactor was brought back online in January.Tepco said it completed a final pre-operation inspection earlier in the day, confirming there were no abnormalities in the reactor, generator or turbine while operating at full capacity. The company then issued a certificate confirming the completion of pre-use checks to the plant’s general manager, Takeyuki Inagaki.
