15 years after Fukushima, Japan prepares to restart the world’s biggest nuclear plant | Japan

TActivity around the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant is at a peak: workers removing soil to widen the width of a main road, while trucks arrive at its heavily guarded entrance. A long perimeter fence is lined with countless coils of barbed wire, and in a parking area a police patrol car watches over visitors to the beach – one of the few places with a clear view of the reactors, framed by snow-capped Mount Yoneyama.

When its seven reactors are operating, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa produces 8.2 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power millions of homes. Occupying 4.2 km² of land in Niigata Prefecture on the coast of the Sea of ​​Japan, it is the largest nuclear power plant in the world.

Since 2012, however, the plant has not produced a single watt of electricity, after being shut down, along with dozens of other reactors, following the Fukushima Daiichi triple meltdown in March 2011, the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

Located about 220 km northwest of Tokyo, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant is managed by Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the same utility in charge of the Fukushima plant when a powerful tsunami slammed into its defenses, triggering a power outage that melted three of its reactors and forced 160,000 people to evacuate.

Weeks before the 15th anniversary of the accident and tsunami that killed about 20,000 people along Japan’s northeastern coast, Tepco is preparing to defy local public opinion and restart one of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa’s seven reactors.

On Monday, Tepco announced it would delay the restart, originally scheduled for the next day, after an alarm malfunctioned during an equipment test over the weekend, according to public broadcaster NHK. The reactor is now expected to return to service in the coming days, NHK added.

The restart of the No. 6 reactor, which could increase the Tokyo region’s electricity supply by about 2 percent, will be an important step in Japan’s slow return to nuclear power, a strategy the government says will help the country meet its emissions targets and strengthen its energy security.

But for many of the 420,000 people living within a 30km radius of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa who would have to be evacuated in the event of a Fukushima-style incident, Tepco’s imminent return to nuclear power generation carries many dangers.

Among them is Ryusuke Yoshida, whose home is less than a mile from the factory, in the sleepy village of Kariwa. When asked what worries him most about the recovery, the 76-year-old has a simple answer. “Everything,” he says, as waves crash onto the shore, reactors looming in the background.

“The evacuation plans are obviously ineffective,” adds Yoshida, a potter and member of an association of people living near the installation. “When it snows in winter, the roads are blocked and many of the people who live here are elderly. What about them and other people who cannot move freely? It’s a human rights issue.”

The utility company says it has learned lessons from the Fukushima Daiichi accident and pledged earlier this year to invest 100 billion yen (£470 million) in Niigata prefecture over the next 10 years to try to win over residents.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, whose 6,000 employees have remained on duty throughout the long shutdown, has sea walls and watertight doors to provide enhanced protection against a tsunami, while mobile diesel-powered generators and a large fleet of fire engines are ready to provide water to cool the reactors in an emergency. Improved filtering systems have been installed to control the spread of radioactive materials.

“The core of the nuclear power sector is first and foremost ensuring safety, and the understanding of local residents is a prerequisite,” says Tatsuya Matoba, Tepco spokesperson.

Residents say this is the only obstacle Tepco has failed to overcome after local authorities ignored calls for a prefectural referendum to determine the plant’s future. In the absence of a vote, anti-restart campaigners cite polls showing clear opposition to bringing the reactor back into service.

Among them was a prefectural government poll conducted late last year in which more than 60 percent of people living within a 30-kilometer radius of the plant said they did not believe the conditions needed to restart the plant had been met.

“We take the results of the prefectural opinion survey very seriously,” adds Matoba. “Winning the understanding and trust of local residents is a never-ending, ongoing process, which requires sincerity and continuous effort. »

Kazuyuki Takemoto, a member of the Kariwa village council, says seismic activity in this region of northwestern Japan means it is impossible to guarantee the safety of the plant.

“But there was no real discussion about it,” says Takemoto, 76. “It is said that safety improvements have been made since the Fukushima disaster, but I don’t think there is a valid reason to restart the reactor. This is beyond my understanding.”

“The priority should be to protect people’s lives”

Just weeks before the planned restart, the nuclear industry drew fresh criticism after it emerged that Chubu Electric Power, a utility in central Japan, had fabricated seismic risk data during a regulatory review, conducted before a possible restart, of two reactors at its inactive Hamaoka plant.

“When you look at what happened with Hamaoka, do you seriously think that Japan’s nuclear industry can be trusted?” Takemoto said. “It used to be said that nuclear power was necessary, safe and cheap… We now know that this was an illusion. »

Adding to local concerns are the presence of seismic faults in and around the site, which suffered damage during a 6.8 magnitude offshore earthquake in July 2007, including a fire that broke out in a transformer. Three reactors then in service shut down automatically.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa restart is a gamble for the Japanese government, which has placed an ambitious return to nuclear power generation at the center of its new energy policy as it struggles to meet its emissions targets and strengthen its energy security.

Before the Fukushima disaster, 54 reactors were in operation, providing around 30% of the country’s electricity. Today, out of 33 operational reactors, only 14 are in service, while attempts to restart others face strong local opposition.

Now, 15 years after the Fukushima disaster, criticism of the country’s “nuclear village” of operators, regulators and politicians has shifted to this snowy coastal city.

Pointing to one of several security cameras near the plant, Yoshida says the restart was forced on residents by the nuclear industry and its political allies. “Local authorities have given in to immense pressure from central government,” he says.

“The priority of any government should be to protect people’s lives, but we feel we have been cheated. Japan’s nuclear village is alive and well. You only have to look at what is happening here to see that.”