Tokyo Electric Power Company will start loading nuclear fuel into the No. 7 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture, at around 4 p.m. on April 15.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority approved the move.

The nuclear power plant has been shut down for a long time due to the effects of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, but it passed the national inspection in 2017 and has been aiming to resume operations.

However, since 2021, there have been a series of incidents including one in which TEPCO employees entered the facility using other people’s ID cards in violation of counterterrorism measures, and the Nuclear Regulation Authority has issued a de facto order to ban operations, but it was lifted in December last year.

Starting on April 15, TEPCO plans to load 872 nuclear fuel assemblies into the reactor over a period of about two weeks, which will be the final step before the restart under the law.

However, local consent has not yet been obtained in Niigata Prefecture, where the plant is located, and the timing of the restart has not been determined.