Japan's TEPCO inches closer to nuclear plant restart

TOKYO, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) (9501.T), Asia's largest utility, will finish setting up turbines at one of its quake-hit nuclear generators by early February, as it inches closer to restarting part of the world's biggest nuclear plant, its president said on Friday.

The indefinite shutdown of the plant has forced TEPCO to rely more on thermal power output, resulting in higher fossil fuel usage.

But TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu said the firm still could not give a schedule for the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, shut since a major earthquake in July 2007.

He said the firm must go through a number of steps and get approval from local and central governments before a restart.

The plant has seven nuclear generators with a total capacity of 8.21 gigawatts, and the restoration of the newest No.7 unit, which came online in 1997, with a capacity of 1,356 megawatts, has been progressing faster than the other units at the plant.

After the turbines are set up, TEPCO plans to make final checks on the No.7 unit. The local fire department will also conduct checks at the unit before it decides whether to lift the unit's operation-suspension order issued after the quake.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under Japan's trade ministry has also been examining safety at the unit.

Shimizu said the company eventually plans to ask the local governments for permission before conducting a trial restart of the nuclear generator, but that no schedule has been set. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori)