Photo/Illutration The No. 7 reactor, left, and the No. 6 reactor at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture (Yasuo Tomatsu)

In a blow to Tokyo Electric Power Co., the Nuclear Regulation Authority decided on May 17 to maintain its ban on moving nuclear fuel within the utility’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture.

The nuclear industry watchdog said it cannot lift the ban because it needs to continue its safety inspections of the plant.

TEPCO wants to restart the No. 7 reactor at the plant in October. But it cannot resume operations with the ban on relocating nuclear fuel in place.

The NRA’s decision could delay TEPCO’s plan and further hurt the company’s finances.

The utility has only itself to blame for the NRA’s decision.

The NRA imposed the ban in April 2021, effectively shutting down plant operations, after TEPCO was found to have failed to take adequate safeguards against terrorist attacks there.

Equipment to detect intruders had not worked for a long time, and a TEPCO employee entered the nuclear plant’s central control room using the ID card of a colleague.

The NRA inspected the plant in 27 areas, including checks on its renewal of facilities and staffing.

But the plant still had problems in four areas, according to the NRA.

For example, the plant still lacks adequate arrangements to ensure that the improvements made will be long-lasting, the NRA said.

“It’s up to TEPCO how long our inspection takes,” Shinsuke Yamanaka, chairman of the NRA, said at a news conference on May 17.

TEPCO is also required to gain the consent of the Niigata prefectural government to restart reactors at the plant. But even if progress is made on this front, the company still needs the NRA to lift the ban.

NRA members will meet with TEPCO President Tomoaki Kobayakawa to learn about the company’s measures to improve operations at the plant.

The utility will report to the NRA how it has made improvements regarding the remaining challenges in the four areas. The NRA could also make unannounced visits to the plant to check on the progress of the work.

TEPCO, operator of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, is desperate to restart its nuclear power operations.

The company reported a net loss of 123.6 billion yen ($899 million) for the fiscal year that ended in March. Without nuclear power, the utility has relied heavily on thermal power generation to supply electricity to its customers, and rising fuel costs have hammered its bottom line.

The cost to generate electricity at a nuclear power plant is cheaper than that for thermal power and at a lower risk of fluctuations.

The government on May 16 approved TEPCO’s plan to raise its regulated electricity rate for households on June 1. Electricity bills for a standard household will increase by 14 percent.

The company calculated its requested price hike based on the assumption that it would be able to restart the No. 7 and No. 6 reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in October this year and April 2025, respectively.

TEPCO estimates that it can cut annual costs by 90 billion yen if it restarts the two reactors.

Momoko Nagasaki, president of TEPCO Energy Partner Inc., the utility’s retail arm, said at a news conference on May 16 that the company will not raise electricity prices again, even if it cannot resume operations at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant.

“We will comprehensively look at areas, such as high voltage electricity (for which there are no regulated electricity rates) as well as non-electricity businesses, and take all possible measures,” she said.

(This article was written by Keitaro Fukuchi, Ryo Sasaki and Shiki Iwasawa.)

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