tech
January 22, 2026
Malfunction forces world’s largest nuclear reactor to shut down
The operator of Japan’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa has had to shut down the nuclear power plant a day after it was relaunched over an alarm issue

TL;DR
- The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, the world's largest, was shut down a day after restarting.
- The shutdown was caused by a malfunction in the control rod monitoring system of Unit 6.
- Unit 6 had been offline for 13 years before its restart.
- The plant experienced alarm issues during a final test, delaying the restart.
- Japan's nuclear watchdog had previously extended a ban on operations at the facility due to safety concerns.
- Control rods are used to adjust nuclear reactions.
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