The company has already received approval from the local mayors of the city of Kashiwazaki and the village of Kariwa to restart the 1,356 MW No.7 reactor, but still it has to receive a final approval from Hirohiko Izumida, the regional governor of Niigata.
Presently, Izumida is satisfied with TEPCO’s safety measures at the plant, and the prefectural assembly is likely to give the approval for the trial run on May 7, 2009.
All seven nuclear generators at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant have been shut since a magnitude 6.8 quake hit the region in July 2007. The least damaged No.7 unit would be the first of the seven to be restarted.
