Japan's nuclear regulator decided Wednesday to effectively ban Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. from restarting its biggest nuclear plant due to serious safety flaws, dealing a blow to the utility's efforts to turn its business around following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority formally decided to bar TEPCO from transporting nuclear fuel stored at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture or loading it into reactors.

The company has seen restarting the seven-reactor Kashiwazaki-Kariwa complex, once known as one of the world's largest nuclear plants by output, as a main pillar of its business restructuring.

==Kyodo

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