In Niigata Prefecture, an urgent atmosphere is covering the area around Kashiwazaki-Kariwa - the world's largest nuclear power plant. Workers are urgently expanding roads while security forces tighten control at checkpoints, preparing for a breakthrough event for the Japanese energy industry.
Owning 7 reactors with a total capacity of 8.2 gigawatts, this plant is capable of supplying electricity to millions of households. However, since 2012, this "energy giant" has completely stopped operating along with a series of other facilities after the twin earthquake-tsunami disaster that caused the nuclear incident in Fukushima in March 2011.
According to the plan, Tepco - the operator of the plant - will restart reactor No. 6, possibly as early as January 20. This move is expected to add about 2% of the power supply to the Tokyo area, while helping Japan get closer to its emission reduction goals and strengthen national energy security.
However, an emergency technical report last weekend is putting all calculations of Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) at risk of collapse.
According to sources from Japan Today, during a functional inspection on January 17-18, engineers discovered a serious error related to the control bar retractable system at reactor No. 6. This is a core safety mechanism to control nuclear reactions. This incident forced TEPCO to consider the possibility of postponing the grid connection time, which was scheduled for commercialization at the end of February 2026.
Not only facing technical errors, the public's trust in Japan was also hit hard by another scandal that had just been exposed at the same time.
Chubu Electric Power Corporation (Chubu Electric Power) is accused of forging seismic risk data at the Hamaoka plant to pass safety tests. Although the incident took place at another plant, it "poured fuel into the fire" for the wave of protests in Niigata, where people were already concerned about the underlying geological faults under the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant.
Niigata Governor Hideyo Hanazumi, although he has given the "green light" for the relaunch at the end of 2025 after much pressure from the central government, is now facing new explanation pressure.
Local people, such as Mr. Ryusuke Yoshida (76 years old), believe that the current evacuation plans are "unrealistic", especially when the only roads are frequently cut off by heavy snow in January.
The combination of last-minute technical problems and the "ghost" of data fraud is turning the reboot date expected to become a tense test of the prestige and safety of the Japanese nuclear industry in 2026.
