Japan suspends work at world's largest nuclear plant after alarm
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (TEPCO) announced on Thursday that it has suspended operations to withdraw control rods at a recently restarted unit of a nuclear power plant located northwest of Tokyo, following the activation of an alarm.
TEPCO stated that it is investigating the cause of the alarm at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear complex in Niigata Prefecture, News.Az reports, citing Kyodo.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority confirmed that the reactor remains stable and emphasized that there are no safety concerns.
Control rods are essential components used to regulate the nuclear fission process within a reactor.
The Niigata prefectural government reported that no abnormal levels of radioactivity have been detected in the vicinity of the seven-unit complex.
The reactor is the first to be rebooted by TEPCO following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. The restart came on Wednesday, a day later than initially planned, after a control-rod alarm also sounded during a test at the last minute.
The alarm was triggered at 12:28 a.m. after equipment to maneuver the control rods apparently had an issue, according to TEPCO.
The No. 6 unit was reactivated at 7.02 p.m. on Wednesday and reached criticality, a controlled self-sustaining nuclear fission chain reaction, around 90 minutes later.
By Nijat Babayev
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