The Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power station in Niigata Prefecture.
(Bloomberg) — Japan’s Niigata prefecture will compile a public opinion study regarding safety at the nation’s largest nuclear power plant around end-October, a key step ahead of the governor potentially approving a restart of the facility.
“We will make a decision once all the survey results are in,” Governor Hideyo Hanazumi said at a regular press conference on Wednesday. “We will analyze them and make a decision after that,” he added, without giving a timeline for the judgment.
Most Read from Bloomberg
The Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power station in Niigata Prefecture.Photographer: Soichiro Koriyama/Bloomberg
The public survey is one of the remaining steps before Hanazumi can make a decision whether he will endorse restarting Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, which was idled after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Two reactors at the facility have already received regulator approval to restart, and now just need clearance from the local government.
Japan’s central government is looking to expand use of nuclear power to curb dependence on overseas fossil fuels and cut emissions. But efforts to restart reactors idled after Fukushima have sometimes been hampered by slow approvals from local authorities.
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.