11 Aug (NucNet): Kyushu Electric Power Company has restarted the Sendai-1 nuclear reactor, the first unit in Japan to resume operation since all of the country’s commercial nuclear stations were shut down for safety checks and upgrades following the March 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi accident.
Kyushu Electric said the reactor, an 846-megawatt pressurised water reactor unit that began commercial operation in July 1984, had gone back online without any problems.
It will be about 24 hours before full criticality is reached, and the plant is expected to start generating power to the grid by Friday. It will reach full capacity some time next month, Kyushu Electric said.
According to the BBC, more than $100m (€90m) has been spent on fitting new safety systems at Sendai-1.
The BBC said a total of 25 units have applied to be restarted, but all are facing legal challenges from “concerned locals”.
The Sendai nuclear station, in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima, has two identical reactors. Sendai-2 began commercial operation in November 1985.
In March 2015 Japan’s nuclear regulator, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), began a pre-service inspection of Sendai-1, the first such inspection carried out under new laws to make sure reactors meet safety standards introduced following Fukushima-Daiichi.
That inspection was the last step in an approval process before the reactor could restart.
According to the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, pre-service inspections began at Sendai-2 on 10 June 2015 and it is scheduled to restart in October.
All of Japan’s 48 commercial reactor units were shut down for safety checks and upgrades following the Fukushima-Daiichi accident. Five reactors have now been earmarked for permanent shutdown, bringing the number of potentially operable commercial units to 43.
In May 2015 Japan’s government said it wanted to see a 20-22 percent nuclear share in the country’s energy mix by 2030, down from about 30 percent before Fukushima-Daiichi.
