TOKYO: The restart of the world’s largest nuclear power plant was suspended in Japan Thursday just hours after the process began, its operator said, but the reactor remained “stable.”
Operations to relaunch a reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata province, closed since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, began late Wednesday after it received the final green light from the nuclear regulator despite divided public opinion.
“An alarm from the monitoring system... sounded during the reactor startup procedures, and operations are currently suspended,” Takashi Kobayashi, a spokesperson for operator Tokyo Electric (TEPCO), told AFP.
The reactor “is stable and there is no radioactive impact outside,” he said, adding that the operator is “currently investigating the cause” of the incident and is unable to say when operations will resume.
The restart, initially scheduled for Tuesday, had been pushed back after a technical issue related to a reactor alarm was detected last weekend — a problem that was resolved on Sunday, according to TEPCO.
