Japan prepares to restart world’s biggest nuclear plant

Japan took the final step to allow the restart of the world’s largest nuclear power plant on Monday as the region of Niigata voted to resume operations, a watershed moment in the country’s return to nuclear energy nearly 15 years after the Fukushima disaster.

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Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, located about 220 kilometers (km) (136 miles) northwest of Tokyo, was among 54 reactors shut after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi plant in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Since then, Japan has restarted 14 of the 33 that remain operable, as it tries to wean itself off imported fossil fuels. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa will be the first operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which ran the doomed Fukushima plant.

On Monday, Niigata prefecture’s assembly passed a vote of confidence on Niigata Governor Hideyo Hanazumi, who backed the restart last month, effectively allowing the plant to begin operations again.

Ahead of the vote, around 300 protesters, mostly older people, holding banners reading “No Nukes,” “We oppose the restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa” and “Support Fukushima” gathered in front of the Niigata prefecture assembly in temperatures of 6 degrees Celsius (42.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

As the rally started, the mostly older crowd sang “Furusato” — a national song about connection to a birthplace, meaning “homeland” in Japanese.

“Is TEPCO qualified to run Kashiwazaki-Kariwa?” a protester asked into the microphone, with the crowd yelling: “No!”