The government agreed Friday to enhance the evacuation system for a possible disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings’ Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Niigata Prefecture.
The move is aimed at gaining the understanding of local residents for a restart of the plant before Prime Minister Fumio Kishida steps down this autumn. Through the restart, the government hopes to ensure stable power supplies amid an expected increase in power demand for data centers and other facilities.
“It’s increasingly important to restart the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant” due to the fragile power supply structure in eastern Japan, Kishida told the day’s meeting of related ministers.
“I want related ministers to work closely to promote understanding for the restart and take more concrete measures,” the prime minister also said, emphasizing the government’s intention to strengthen its involvement.
The same day, the government decided to establish a new framework to discuss ways to develop evacuation roads without imposing financial burdens on the Niigata Prefectural Government.
It also confirmed plans to upgrade snow-removal vehicles, expand the number of shelters and disseminate related information intensively.
The prefectural government had asked the central government to strengthen disaster management measures for the plant following the Jan. 1 Noto Peninsula earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture.
The nuclear power plant halted operations after the March 2011 triple meltdown at Tepco’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority effectively banned operations at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in 2021 due to a series of flaws in its anti-terrorism measures.
The ban was lifted in December last year, and the plant passed safety screenings in June this year. Attention is now focused on whether Tepco can win the understanding of local residents.