Tokyo, Jan 22The restart of the world’s largest nuclear power plant was suspended in Japan on Thursday, with the operator saying it does not know when the problem would be solved.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata province had been closed since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, but operations to relaunch it had begun on Wednesday after it received the final green light from the nuclear regulator.
However, its operator the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said Thursday that “an alarm from the monitoring system… sounded during the reactor startup procedures”, causing it to suspend operations.
“We don’t expect this to be solved within a day or two. There is no telling at the moment how long it will take,” site superintendent Takeyuki Inagaki told a news conference.
“We will for now fully focus on trying to identify the cause of what happened,” he said.
The alarm that went off prompted TEPCO to “investigate the malfunctioning electrical equipment,” spokesman Takashi Kobayashi told AFP.
And “once it became clear that it would take time, we decided to reinsert the control rods in a planned manner”, he said, adding that the reactor “is stable and there is no radioactive impact outside”.
Control rods are a device used to control the nuclear chain reaction in the reactor core, which can be accelerated by slightly withdrawing them, or slowed down or stopped completely by inserting them deeper.
The restart, initially scheduled for Tuesday, had been pushed back after another technical issue related to the rods’ removal was detected last weekend — a problem that was resolved on Sunday, according to TEPCO.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the world’s biggest nuclear power plant by potential capacity, although just one reactor of seven was restarted.
The facility was taken offline when Japan pulled the plug on nuclear power after a colossal earthquake and tsunami sent three reactors at the Fukushima atomic plant into meltdown in 2011.
However, resource-poor Japan now wants to revive atomic energy to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and meet growing energy needs from artificial intelligence.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the first TEPCO-run unit to restart since 2011. The company also operates the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant, now being decommissioned.
Public opinion in Niigata is deeply divided: Around 60 percent of residents oppose the restart, while 37 percent support it, according to a survey conducted in September.
“It’s Tokyo’s electricity that is produced in Kashiwazaki, so why should the people here be put at risk? That makes no sense,” Yumiko Abe, a 73-year-old resident, told AFP this week during a protest in front of the plant.
Earlier this month, seven groups opposing the restart submitted a petition signed by nearly 40,000 people to TEPCO and Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, saying that the plant sits on an active seismic fault zone and noted it was struck by a strong quake in 2007.

Copenhagen, Jan 22 NATO chief Mark Rutte cannot negotiate on behalf of Denmark over Greenland, the Danish government said Thursday, a day after US President Donald Trump announced a deal following talks between the two men.
Trump backed down on threats to seize Greenland by force after meeting Rutte on Wednesday, saying he had reached a “framework” of a deal on the Danish autonomous territory.
Details of the agreement made at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos remain scant.
“The position of Denmark and that of Greenland are the same, and no negotiations were held yesterday with NATO about our sovereignty,” Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish television.
“Of course it is only Denmark and Greenland themselves that can make decisions on issues concerning Denmark and Greenland,” she said earlier in a statement.
The United States and Denmark will renegotiate a 1951 defence pact on Greenland, a source familiar with the talks between Trump and Rutte told AFP on Thursday.
Putting US military bases on Greenland under US sovereignty had not been discussed during the talks, the source said.
Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said on social media Thursday that Rutte “cannot negotiate an agreement on behalf of Denmark or Greenland”.
However, he said Rutte had “worked loyally to maintain unity within NATO” and it was “very positive” that the alliance wanted to do more to strengthen Arctic security.
“We have a clear red line,” he added. “We will not cede sovereignty over parts of the kingdom.”

Davos, Switzerland, Jan 22 (DNA):US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had reached a framework of a deal that satisfies him on Greenland, as he backed down both on threats to seize the island by force from Denmark and on imposing tariffs against European allies.
              Trump made the startling turnaround after talks with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who told AFP afterward that the meeting was "very good" but that "there's still a lot of work to be done".
              Trump, attending the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, said the framework was for a long-term deal, but he was conspicuously silent on whether it would mean US control over the Arctic island, which he has repeatedly demanded.
              "We have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region", Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
              Trump said he would therefore scrap tariffs of up to 25 percent that he had vowed days ago to slap starting February 1 on Denmark as well as close European allies that have sent troops to Greenland in solidarity, including Britain, France and Germany.
              Trump later told reporters from outlets including AFP that the deal "gets everything we wanted" and will be in force "forever".
              Asked if the United States would gain sovereignty over the vast but sparsely populated island, Trump hesitated and then said, "It's the ultimate long-term deal." 
              "I think it puts everybody in a really good position, especially as it pertains to security, and minerals and everything else," Trump said.
              "It's a deal that people jumped at, really fantastic for the USA, gets everything we wanted."
              NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said that Denmark, Greenland, and the United States will negotiate on "ensuring that Russia and China never gain a foothold -- economically or militarily -- in Greenland" -- a key stated concern of Trump.


              - Some relief in Europe, markets -


              Global markets that had been rattled by the rift and the threat of tariffs saw relief, with Wall Street's key indices climbing.
              Trump's threats had triggered one of the biggest transatlantic crises in decades, with warnings that he could single-handedly destroy NATO through aggression against a fellow member.
              His apparent turnaround brought guarded relief in Denmark, long a steadfast US ally, where Trump's bellicose language has triggered shock and feelings of betrayal.
              "Trump said that he will pause the trade war, he says, 'I will not attack Greenland'. These are positive messages," Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told Danish public television DR.
              Lokke had flown last week to Washington and met Vice President JD Vance, only to say afterward that the United States had not budged on seeking to control Greenland.
              But Aaja Chenmitz, one of two Greenlandic lawmakers in the Danish parliament, questioned why NATO would have a voice on the island's mineral wealth.
              "NATO in no case has the right to negotiate on anything without us, Greenland. Nothing about us without us," she posted.
              In Nuuk, where authorities started handing out brochures on how to live through a crisis, 65-year-old pensioner Lis Steenholdt said that Greenland and Denmark had been firm that the island is not for sale.
              "You have to believe the system. That's the only option we have right now," Steenholdt said.