World’s largest nuclear power plant in Japan suspends hours-old restart

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant’s combined output capacity of eight million kilowatts makes it the world’s largest (Chiaki Ueda/Kyodo News via AP)

The restart of the world’s largest nuclear power plant was suspended on Thursday, hours after it had resumed for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The restart of the No 6 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in north-central Japan was suspended because of a glitch related to control rods, which are essential to safely starting up and shutting down reactors, according to its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco).