NIIGATA: A Japanese government energy affairs official Thursday sought understanding from Niigata Governor HANAZUMI Hideyo about restarting Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in central Japan.

MURASE Yoshifumi, commissioner of the Industry Ministry’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, handed the governor a document stating the central government’s policy of taking procedures carefully to restart nuclear reactors that meet the regulatory standards while obtaining the understanding of local communities.

“Compared with the western Japan area, where nuclear reactors have been restarted, the supply-demand situation for electricity in the eastern Japan area remains severe,” Murase told the head of Niigata Prefecture.

The Jan. 1 earthquake in the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, a Niigata neighbor, “has triggered a sense of anxiety” among Niigata residents, Hanazumi said, adding that his prefecture will closely examine the government’s efforts to secure safe evacuation routes in the event of an emergency.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority last December lifted a de facto ban on the operations of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata imposed for a series of flaws in the facility’s antiterrorism measures.

The focal point is whether local consent can be obtained for the restart of the plant.

JIJI Press