The world's largest nuclear power plant has resumed operations after a 12-year hiatus

Tepco has restarted the sixth unit of the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant in western Japan. The reactor restarted on January 21 after a 24-hour delay due to a failure in the alarm system. About this reports Nucnet.

The company had planned to restart the unit on Tuesday, January 20, but during a test operation on Saturday, an alarm for the control rods failed. These elements are used to suppress the nuclear fission reaction, so Tepco postponed the start-up to fix the problem.

Unit 6 is a 1,315-megawatt boiling water reactor that first began commercial operation in 1996. Fuel loading for the unit was completed in June of last year. The reactor has not been operating since March 2012.

The restart means Japan has restarted fifteen units since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. The accident led to a mass shutdown of nuclear plants across the country.

Kashiwazaki Kariwa is the world's largest nuclear power plant by capacity. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, its seven boiling water reactor units have a combined net capacity of 7,965 megawatts.

The facility served as an important source of energy for the Tokyo metropolitan area until the events of 2011. The earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi changed the country's energy policy.

Tepco is focusing resources on restarting the newer units six and seven. However, in September the company announced plans to remove fuel from unit seven due to delays. The Japan Atomic Industrial Forum said construction of the special safety facilities would not be completed until October 13, 2025.

• In November it became known that the world's largest Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Japan should resume work by the end of March.
• On December 22, it became known that Japan took the final step towards restarting the world's largest of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant almost 15 years after the Fukushima disaster.