Japan Nuclear Reactor in 2011 Disaster Area Stops Days after Restart

Tokyo, 4 Nov (ONA) --- A Japanese nuclear reactor at the Onagawa Power Plant was shut down today, after it was recently restarted for the first time in more than 13 years, following the devastating 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that severely damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Japan's Kyodo quoted Tohoku Electric Power Co., the reactor's operator, as saying: it had to be shut down again due to a glitch in a device related to neutron data inside the reactor.

The No. 2 reactor at the Onagawa nuclear power plant on Japan's northern coast was put back online on 29 October 2024 and had been expected to start generating power in early November. Tohoku Electric said. The utility said it decided to shut it down to re-examine equipment to address residents' safety concerns. No new date for a restart was given.

The restart of the Onagawa reactor marked the first time in Japan that a boiling water reactor, the same type as the Fukushima Daiichi reactors that suffered fuel meltdowns, has been brought online since the 2011 disaster.

The Onagawa plant, located closest to the epicenter of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake on 11 March 2011, was struck by tsunami waves around 13 meters high.

--- Ends/Khalid