Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. plans to start loading nuclear fuel into a reactor Monday at an idle plant northwest of Tokyo, as part of preparations to potentially restart the facility.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority granted approval earlier in the day for the loading of the No.7 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture. However, the timing of the restart remains uncertain.

TEPCO has yet to restart any of its nuclear reactors, which were halted after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The utility said it intends to begin work from around 4 p.m. Monday, with nuclear fuel set to be loaded into the reactor following preparations that will take around an hour.

Niigata Gov. Hideyo Hanazumi has yet to announce whether he will give his approval for restarting the reactor, and it is rare for a nuclear plant operator to start refueling one without local consent. He has been calling for extensive discussions on measures to ensure the safety of residents in the event of a nuclear accident.

All reactors restarted since the March 2011 nuclear disaster elsewhere in the country have received local approval ahead of nuclear refueling.

The No. 7 unit of the plant, which supplies electricity to the Tokyo metropolitan and other areas, cleared safety screenings by the nuclear regulator in 2017.

But safety flaws identified at the plant led the NRA to issue an operational ban, which was in force from April 2021 until its lifting in December following an inspection of strengthened counterterrorism measures at the site.

The central government has been seeking the governor's approval for the restart as it aims to reintroduce nuclear power production to resource-poor Japan's energy supply.

Hanazumi has said challenges remain concerning how to evacuate residents if an accident occurs, particularly in light of the powerful Jan. 1 Noto Peninsula earthquake in nearby Ishikawa Prefecture and heavy snow in the prefecture in 2022.

Meanwhile, mayors in the two municipalities that host the facility have taken a positive stance toward the proposed restart.

The seven-reactor facility that straddles the Niigata Prefecture city of Kashiwazaki and the village of Kariwa has a maximum output of 8.212 million kilowatts and is one of the world's largest producers of electricity.

==Kyodo

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