Japan Governor’s Visit to Nuclear Reactor Raises Restart Hopes

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(Bloomberg) — The governor of Japan’s Niigata Prefecture will make a rare visit to one of the country’s most-troubled nuclear power plants this week, an event that will be watched closely by gas traders for any hint that the facility might be restarted.

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Hideyo Hanazumi is scheduled to visit Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant and an associated training facility on Friday, the local government announced, without giving further details. The plant, better known by its KK initials, was idled after the 2011 Fukushima disaster and requires the governor’s approval to restart.

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Japanese news agency Kyodo, citing an unidentified local official, reported on Tuesday that the governor is expected to make a decision this month. An official at the Niigata prefectural government said the governor had not commented about the matter.

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Hanazumi said during a regular press briefing earlier this month that he had last visited the KK facility in 2018. He has said previously that he would like to see the facility “with my own eyes” before deciding whether to resume operations.

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Japan wants to expand its use of nuclear power to curb imports of liquefied natural gas and other fossil fuels, as well as to cut emissions, but the restart of its reactors has often become stalled in the approval process at local government level. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, appointed last month, is widely expected to continue the pro-nuclear stance of previous governments.  

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If approved, the resumption of KK would carry symbolic meaning for Tepco, which would be operating a nuclear power plant for the first time since the Fukushima disaster. Previous attempts have run into trouble: In 2021, Tepco was banned from restarting the plant — which lies about 165 miles (266 kilometers) from Tokyo — after a slew of serious security breaches. That ban was lifted two years later, after Tepco made improvements.

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A restart would also have a notable impact on the LNG market. Masanori Odaka, an analyst at consultancy Rystad Energy, said the resumption of the No. 6 unit at KK — the first section that would be restarted — would potentially reduce gas demand for electricity by roughly 130,000 tons a month. Japan imported an average of 5.3 million tons per month of LNG between January and October, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

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Odaka said he had initially expected the No. 6 unit to resume in 2027. “But with the changing landscape and prefectural government policies,” he said, “I believe a relatively sooner-than-expected restart is possible.”

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