New Niigata Governor Cautious on N-Plant Restart

August 2, 2018

Niigata- Hideyo Hanazumi, governor of Niigata Prefecture, who took office in June, sounded cautious on Thursday about the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in the central Japan prefecture.

"We won't discuss whether to bring the plant back online before the completion of our own investigation of the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station," Hanazumi told reporters after his first meeting with Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. <9501> President Tomoaki Kobayakawa earlier in the day.

At the meeting, held at the prefectural government office in the city of Niigata, Kobayakawa said the prefecture's own probe of the triple meltdown at TEPCO's tsunami-stricken Fukushima No. 1 plant in northeastern Japan is an important part of the process of gaining local understanding for the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, also owned by the power supplier.

"We'll continue providing maximum cooperation for the investigation," the TEPCO chief said.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority recently gave a low rating to a nuclear disaster drill that TEPCO conducted at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant earlier this year. Kobayakawa apologized for this and said that he will spearhead the company's efforts to improve its nuclear disaster drills. Jiji Press