Japan is set to make a history by possibly resuming the power of the largest nuclear power plant in the world, which was almost 15 years after a catastrophe in the Fukushima plant. On Monday, Niigata area will cast their vote to restart the operations in Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant and this will be the step forward in restoring Japan to slow transition to nuclear power.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, 54 of the 54 reactors which were closed after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi plant, was located approximately 220 kilometers northwest of Tokyo and was the site of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. This has made Japan to restart 14 out of its remaining 33 active reactors since then in an effort to be less reliant on imported fossil fuels. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa would become the first reactor to be run by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) since Fukushima crisis in case it is approved.
This has triggered some demonstrations, with approximately 300 demonstrators in front of the Niigata prefecture assembly on Monday, the majority of whom are elderly. The protesters held banners that were inscribed with the words No Nukes, we oppose the restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa and the words, Support Fukushima, which showed their utter opposition to the resuming of operations by TEPCO. A protester asked the question, who did TEPCO have to operate the plant, thus the crowd shouted consenting to the question.
Should the vote go through, the first of seven reactors in the plant will be reactivated by TEPCO on January 20 under mass media NHK. TEPCO spokesperson, Masakatsu Takata assured people saying, we are very much determined to ensure that such an accident never recurs, and that the people of Niigata never have such an experience.
To win the locals, TEPCO has promised to spend 100 billion yen (approximately 641 million dollars) in Niigata in the upcoming 10 years. Even with such efforts, it does not make most residents suspicious. A survey carried out recently in October indicated that 60 percent of the locals feel that all the requirements of a safe restart have not been achieved with almost 70 percent of them being worried about TEPCO being involved in running the plant.
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