Japan's Tohoku Electric to delay nuclear reactor restart on construction works

Hokuriku Electric Power Co

10/01/2024 07:15

TOKYO, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Japan's Tohoku Electric Power
 9506.T  said on Wednesday it will delay the restart of reactor
No. 2 at its Onagawa nuclear station due to additional safety
construction works, keeping all its nuclear power plants
shutdown since the 2011 earthquake.
    Japan is gradually bringing nuclear power back to its energy
mix in a move to reach carbon neutrality goals and to reduce
imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) which it imports from
elsewhere including from Russia. 
    Tohoku, whose Onawaga plant was closest among Japan's
nuclear stations to the epicentre of the magnitude-9 quake in
March 2011, received a regulatory approval to restart the No. 2
reactor in 2020 but has seen a delay in completion of safety
construction measures. 
    On Wednesday, it said it expected a delay of several months
in finishing safety construction measures earlier targeted for
February. Timing of the reactor restart, set for May, will also
be changed, Tohoku said, without providing a new timeline. 
    The station was swamped by the 2011 tsunami, but survived
with its cooling system intact, saving its reactors from the
threat of meltdowns similar to those that occurred at Tokyo
Electric Power's  9501.T  Fukushima Daiichi plant to the south.
    Japan's Hokuriku Electric Power  9505.T  on Sunday reported
a small oil leak from its Shika nuclear power station, which was
shaken by a powerful earthquake on New Year's Day, but said
external radiation levels were not affected and there were no
adverse impacts on the environment or human health.
    Days before the magnitude 7.6 quake, which has killed over
200 people in the Hokuriku region, Japan's nuclear power
regulator lifted an operational ban on Tokyo Electric Power's
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world's biggest.    
    Resumption of the plant, offline following the Fukushima
disaster, needs consent from the local governments of Niigata
prefecture, Kashiwazaki city and Kariwa village, where it is
located, and its timing is unknown. 

 (Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Additional reporting by Yuka
Obayashi
Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
 ((ekaterina.golubkova@thomsonreuters.com;))