Nuclear reactor owned by Fukushima plant operator TEPCO suspends hours-old restart

Key Highlights

• TEPCO said there was no safety issue from the glitch and it was checking the situation.
• It was not known when the restart process would resume.
• The restart at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant was being watched closely since TEPCO also runs the Fukushima Daiichi plant that was ruined in the 2011 quake and tsunami, and since resource-poor Japan is accelerating atomic power use to meet soaring electricity needs.
• All seven reactors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa have been dormant for a year after the meltdowns of reactors at the Fukushima plant contaminated the surrounding land with radioactive fallout so severe that some areas are still unlivable.
• TEPCO is working on the cleanup at the Fukushima site that’s estimated to cost 22 trillion yen (USD 139 billion).