Japan's Tohoku Elec halts Onagawa reactor due to faulty equipment

Tohoku Electric Power, Incorporated

04/11/2024 04:05

TOKYO, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Tohoku Electric Power  9506.T 
halted operations of the No.2 reactor at its Onagawa nuclear
power plant on Monday after one of its instruments failed,
according to a statement by the company.
    In a first for eastern Japan since the Fukushima nuclear
accident in 2011, the Onagawa reactor was set to start
generating energy on Sunday before operators discovered that a
device for detecting neutrons had stopped functioning.
    Tohoku Electric subsequently halted operations at the
reactor on Monday morning. There will be no radioactive impact
from the suspension, according to its statement.
    The long-delayed restart of the 825 megawatt (MW) Onagawa
No. 2 reactor would have taken the number of Japan's operational
reactors to 13, with a combined capacity of 12,433 MW.
    The Onagawa plant reopened last month for the first time
since the 2011 nuclear disaster, caused by a devastating quake
and tsunami that triggered a meltdown at three of six reactors
at Tokyo Electric Power Co's  9501.T  Fukushima Daiichi plant.
    The plant runs boiling water reactors (BWR), the same as
those in Fukushima, and was the closest nuclear station to the
epicentre of the 2011 earthquake.
    Despite some public resistance, many in Japan's ruling party
want to increase nuclear in the country's energy mix to help
meet growing power demand from semiconductor plants and
artificial intelligence (AI) data centres. They also hope to
lower its reliance on imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
    For Tohoku Electric, the Onagawa restart followed a total
investment of 570 billion yen ($3.72 billion) on safety measures
to meet tougher rules adopted after the Fukushima disaster and
was expected to boost the firm's profit by 13 billion yen for
the financial year ending next March.
    

 (Reporting by Sakura Murakami; Editing by Sonali Paul)
 ((Sakura.Murakami@thomsonreuters.com;))