Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings has taken the precautionary measure following an alarm challenge on the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility
Japan’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, the world’s largest, was shut down a day after restarting, the operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) has stated, citing a malfunction within the management rod monitoring system.
In March 2011, a strong earthquake and an ensuing tsunami precipitated meltdowns at Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, additionally operated by Tepco. It was probably the most devastating such incident because the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe within the Soviet Union. The Japanese authorities subsequently determined to take all 54 of the nation’s industrial nuclear crops offline for upkeep and structural evaluation. However, in recent times, the authorities in Tokyo moved to reactivate the idled nuclear energy crops in a bid to stabilize vitality costs.
On Thursday, the corporate stated it was shutting down a reactor on the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility. According to the operator, Unit 6 was restarted on Wednesday after 13 years offline just for a control-rod operation monitor alarm to go off the next day. Attempts to repair the security system failed, forcing the precautionary shutdown. Control rods are used to regulate nuclear reactions at energy crops.
“The investigation is currently ongoing, but as it is expected to take time to determine the cause, we decided to temporarily shut down the plant on January 22nd to inspect the affected section,” Tepco said.
The plant additionally confronted alarm issues throughout a last take a look at final Saturday, delaying the restart by a day. Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority stated that the reactor is steady and no issues of safety have been detected, native media reported.
In May 2023, Japan’s nuclear watchdog prolonged a ban on operations on the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear facility over security considerations, after an worker had misplaced a stack of paperwork associated to safety protocols on the energy plant.
(RT.com)