Bangladesh, Jan. 22 -- Japans long and controversial effort to revive its nuclear power sector suffered another setback this week after Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) shut down a reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the largest nuclear facility in the world, just one day after it was restarted. The precautionary shutdown, triggered by a malfunction in a key safety monitoring system, has once again raised questions about the reliability of Japans aging nuclear infrastructure and the pace at which the government is pushing to bring reactors back online.

According to Tepco, Unit 6 at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility in Niigata Prefecture was taken offline on January 22 following repeated alarms in the control...