Japan’s nuclear odyssey comes full circle 15 years after Fukushima with restart of world’s largest plant

Sign up now: Get insights on Asias fast-moving developments

Employees at work inside Unit 6 of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Japans Niigata Prefecture. The plant is slated for restart in January 2026 after receiving the green-light from Niigata authorities.

ST PHOTO: MASASHI SHIMURA

KASHIWAZAKI (Niigata) – Come 2026, Japan will fire up the world’s largest nuclear power plant again in a powerful signal that the nation is turning a page on the

2011 Fukushima disaster.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, known colloquially as KK, shares the same operator as the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant – Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

It is certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest plant by net output at 8.2 gigawatts, which is enough to power more than 13 million homes, and its restart will be the first time TEPCO is powering up a nuclear plant since the disaster.

KK, which began operations in 1985, has seven reactor units across a 4.2 sq km area along the coast of Niigata Prefecture in eastern Japan. While it previously supplied electricity mainly to the Tokyo Metropolitan Region, the plant has been sitting idle.

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake unleashed tsunami waves that triggered a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in north-eastern Japan, in one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents.

In the aftermath, Japan pulled the plug on nuclear power, mothballing all 54 of its reactors. It drew up stricter operation safety guidelines and established a