By FUMIKO KURIBAYASHI/ Staff Writer
May 12, 2021 at 17:24 JST
Kansai Electric Power Co.’s No. 3 reactor at the Mihama nuclear power plant in July 2019 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Kansai Electric Power Co. on May 12 announced it will restart a nuclear reactor more than 40 years old in late June.
The utility company has discussed the plan to resume the No. 3 reactor at its nuclear power plant in Mihama, Fukui Prefecture.
It will be the first nuclear reactor more than four decades old to be put into operation in Japan since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.
Nuclear fuel loading at the No. 3 reactor is expected to start on May 20. KEPCO said it aims to activate the reactor and start power generation and transmission in late June. Full-blown operation will resume in late July, the company said.
Fukui Governor Tatsuji Sugimoto announced on April 28 that he was approving the resumption of operations of the No. 3 reactor at Mihama, as well as the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors--both more than 40 years old--at the KEPCO’s Takahama nuclear plant in the prefecture.
But KEPCO announced that it would be unable to meet the June 9 deadline for completing anti-terrorism measures at the Takahama reactors, leaving the company’s plan without clear prospects.
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