By TOMOKI MORISHITA/ Staff Writer
October 16, 2024 at 16:22 JST
The Shimane nuclear power plant in Matsue. The building on the left houses the No. 2 reactor. (Masahiro Kakihana)
The No. 2 reactor of the long-idled Shimane nuclear power plant in Matsue is scheduled to restart in early December after being offline for nearly 13 years, the plant operator announced on Oct. 15.
Chugoku Electric Power Co. plans to begin loading nuclear fuel into the reactor on Oct. 28, which is expected to take about a week.
Commercial operations are scheduled to resume in early January of the following year.
The plant features boiling water reactors, the same type as those at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which suffered triple meltdowns following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
The Shimane plant is the only nuclear plant in Japan located in a prefectural capital.
Following the 2011 disaster, a decision was made to decommission the plant’s No. 1 reactor, which was undergoing a regular inspection at the time of the Fukushima accident.
The No. 2 reactor has been offline since January 2012, undergoing inspections to meet new regulatory standards established in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
If everything goes according to plan, it will be the first time in nearly 13 years that Chugoku Electric is operating a nuclear reactor.
“We will continue to prioritize safety and steadily advance each step of the preparations toward the restart,” the company said.
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