An unexpected alarm briefly interrupted work at Japan’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant just a day after a reactor restart, though regulators said there was no danger and radiation levels remained normal
Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said an alarm went off on Thursday at the recently restarted No. 6 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture, causing operators to halt work temporarily.
The alarm sounded while workers were handling the control rods—equipment used to regulate the nuclear reaction—leading to a pause in operations as officials investigate what triggered the alert.
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, as cited by the Japan Times, said the reactor remains stable and there are no safety concerns, and no abnormal radiation levels have been detected around the world’s largest nuclear power station by capacity.
The No. 6 unit was restarted on Wednesday, marking the first time Tepco has brought a reactor back online since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Work has now stopped again so engineers can fully understand the cause of the alarm before moving ahead.
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