Japan

Following rigorous safety checks, Kansai Electric Power Co. on February 1 restarted a unit that uses a uranium-plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel at its Takahama nuclear plant in Japan’s Fukui prefecture. The unit is the third restarted in Japan since the country’s Nuclear Regulation Agency (NRA) idled all reactors and began safety checks in the […]

The second unit at Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai nuclear facility in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, has restarted, and three more of the country’s 43 operable reactors may soon follow suit.  Kyushu Electric restarted the 846-MW Sendai 2 nuclear facility on Oct. 15, with plans to connect to the grid on Oct. 21, and to achieve […]

Nuclear costs aren’t on the rise globally as has been widely thought, says a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) surveying the levelized cost of generating electricity (LCOE).  The eighth edition of the report, “Projected Costs of Generating Electricity” compiles data for 181 plants in 19 OECD and […]

Nearly two years after Japan’s last nuclear power plant was shut down for safety checks, Kyushu Electric Power Co. has started up the 890-MW Sendai-1. The event marks a significant milestone for the country’s nuclear sector, which was crippled by the Fukushima disaster in 2011.  Kyushu started up Sendai-1 at 10:30 a.m. local time and […]

The Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) approved Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s operational safety programs for Sendai Nuclear Power Station Units 1 and 2 on May 27. The approval is the last of three needed by the company to verify that the plant complies with new regulatory requirements implemented as a result of the Fukushima disaster. […]

NRC Advances Design Certification of Westinghouse SMR, South Korea’s APR1400. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Feb. 27 approved Westinghouse Electric Co.’s testing approach for its small modular reactor (SMR) design—a “significant” step that the Toshiba Corp. company said will reduce the time ultimately needed to obtain design certification. By granting a safety evaluation report […]

A Japanese court has rejected a petition to halt the restart of two reactors at the Sendai nuclear power plant, putting the country on course again to revive its long-stalled nuclear power sector.  The Kagoshima district court in southwest Japan rejected claims by residents that nearby volcanoes pose risks to the Sendai plant, and that […]

A Japanese court has blocked plans to reopen two reactors that had been previously cleared to resume operations by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA).  Local residents in western Japan’s Fukui Prefecture, where Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Takahama nuclear plant is located, successfully petitioned a court to issue an injunction halting plans to restart Units 3 […]

Four Japanese utilities last week announced that they would retire five older reactors rather than implement strict and expensive safety requirements mandated by new nuclear regulations.  Kansai Electric Power Co. on March 17 said it will close two reactors (340 MW and 500 MW) at its Mihama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture. On the same […]

Four years after the massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami heavily damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, cleanup efforts continue amid new challenges, while Japan has made little progress on the policy front. The Ongoing Crisis at Daiichi By the fourth anniversary of the devastating events at Fukushima, the situation onsite has improved markedly, […]