Adedokun Waliyu 
The world’s biggest nuclear power is set to restart on Wednesday for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, its Japanese operator said, despite persistent safety concerns among residents.
The governor of Niigata province, where the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant is located, approved its resumption last month, although public opinion remains sharply divided.
*Restart Preparations*
After receiving the final green light Wednesday, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said they were “proceeding with preparations… and plan to remove the control rods after 7:00 pm today and start up the reactor”.
On Tuesday, a few dozen protesters — mostly elderly — braved freezing temperatures to demonstrate in the snow near the plant’s entrance, whose buildings line the Sea of Japan coast.
“It’s Tokyo’s electricity that is produced in Kashiwazaki, so why should the people here be put at risk? That makes no sense,” Yumiko Abe, a 73-year-old resident, told AFP.
*Public Opposition and Context*
Around 60 per cent of residents oppose the restart, while 37 per cent support it, according to a survey conducted in September. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the world’s biggest nuclear power plant by potential capacity, although just one reactor of seven is restarting Wednesday.
The facility was taken offline when Japan pulled the plug on nuclear power after a colossal earthquake and tsunami sent three reactors at the Fukushima atomic plant into meltdown in 2011.
However, resource-poor Japan now wants to revive atomic energy to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and meet growing energy needs from artificial intelligence.
*Safety Concerns and Upgrades*
(FILES) This picture, taken on August 6, 2024, shows a general view inside the reactor containment vessel of the Unit 7 reactor building at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Kashiwazaki, in Japan’s Niigata prefecture.
Nearly fifteen years after the disaster, “the situation is still not under control in Fukushima, and TEPCO wants to revive a plant? For me, that’s absolutely unacceptable,” said Keisuke Abe, an 81-year-old demonstrator.
The vast Kashiwazaki-Kariwa complex has been fitted with a 15-metre-high (50-foot) tsunami wall, elevated emergency power systems, and other safety upgrades.
However, residents raised concerns about the risk of a serious accident, citing frequent cover-up scandals, minor accidents, and evacuation plans they say are inadequate. On January 8, seven groups opposing the restart submitted a petition signed by nearly 40,000 people to TEPCO and Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority.
*Energy Policy Shift*
Japan is the world’s fifth-largest single-country emitter of carbon dioxide, after China, the United States, India, and Russia, and is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels.
Nearly 70 per cent of its electricity in 2023 came from coal, gas, and oil — a share Tokyo wants to slash to 30-40 per cent over the next 15 years as it expands renewable energy and nuclear power.
Under a plan approved by the government in February, nuclear power will account for around a fifth of Japan’s energy supply by 2040 — up from around 8.5 per cent in the fiscal year 2023-24.
