(Corrects by rewriting headline and adding in dropped word ‘plant’)
By Katya Golubkova
TOKYO (Reuters) -A Japanese regional governor is expected to say on Friday whether he will allow a partial restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world’s biggest, as Japan tries to revive its nuclear sector and reduce fossil fuel imports.
Approval by Niigata Prefecture Governor Hideyo Hanazumi would remove the last major hurdle for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) to go ahead with plans to restart one or two of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa’s biggest reactors.
A restart would be the first for TEPCO since the March 2011 tsunami destroyed its Fukushima Daiichi power plant. It would also be a breakthrough for Japan, which after the disaster shut all 54 nuclear reactors in operation at the time, leaving it heavily reliant on fossil fuel imports vulnerable to production shocks and supply disruptions.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who took office last month, has said she supports more nuclear relaunches to strengthen energy security and to address the cost of imported energy, which accounts for 60% to 70% of Japan’s electricity generation.
“The restart … is extremely important from the perspective of reducing power supply and electricity prices, and securing decarbonized power sources,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said on Friday.
Of the 54 reactors in operation pre-Fukushima, Japan has restarted 14 of the 33 that remain operable.
Governor Hanazumi is expected to announce his decision at 4 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Friday. It was not immediately clear whether his decision would be affected by a report on Thursday by Japan’s nuclear regulator about inadequate management of confidential security documents at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant.
TEPCO, if approval is granted for both, plans to restart units No. 6 and No. 7, which together can produce 2,710 megawatts of electricity, or about a third of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa’s total capacity of 8,212 MW. TEPCO has said it plans to decommission some of the other five units at the facility.
In July, Kansai Electric Power, Japan’s top nuclear power operator, said it would begin conducting surveys to investigate building a reactor in western Japan that would be the first new unit since the Fukushima disaster.
TEPCO shares were down 1.3% on Friday, paring losses after the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s report on Thursday and performing better than a 2.3% drop in the Nikkei index.
(Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Tony Munroe and Tom Hogue)
