Overview
- Operations were suspended hours after the unit reached criticality when a monitoring alarm sounded during control‑rod withdrawal, with TEPCO reporting the reactor stable and no radioactive release.
- Site chief Takeyuki Inagaki said the reactor was put back into shutdown for a thorough investigation into the fault, signaling no quick timeline for resuming the startup.
- The restart had already been delayed after a pre‑startup test failed to trigger a control‑rod alarm, with inspections completed and criticality achieved before the new alarm halted the process.
- Unit 6 is a roughly 1.35–1.36 GW reactor at the 8.2 GW Kashiwazaki‑Kariwa complex, and a sustained return could power over 1 million households in the Tokyo region and ease fossil‑fuel import needs.
- The effort follows regulatory and local approvals but faces strong resistance, including a petition nearing 40,000 signatures that highlights seismic risks and longstanding distrust of TEPCO.