TEPCO halted the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa restart after a monitoring alarm sounded, but confirmed the reactor is stable with no radioactive impact.<\/b>
\nThe restart of the world\u2019s largest nuclear power plant was suspended in Japan on Thursday just hours after the process began, its operator said, but the reactor remains \u201cstable\u201d.
Operations to relaunch a reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata province, closed since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, began late on Wednesday after it received the final green light from the nuclear regulator despite divided public opinion.
But its operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), said that \u201can alarm from the monitoring system \u2026 sounded during the reactor start-up procedures\u201d, causing them to suspend operations.
\u201cWe were investigating the malfunctioning electrical equipment,\u201d spokesperson Takashi Kobayashi said, adding that \u201conce it became clear that it would take time, we decided to reinsert the control rods in a planned manner\u201d.
The reactor \u201cis stable and there is no radioactive impact outside\u201d, he said.
Control rods are a device used to control the nuclear chain reaction in the reactor core, which can be accelerated by slightly withdrawing them, or slowed down or stopped completely by inserting them deeper.<\/p>\n