Kansai Electric Power Co. on Wednesday informed the Fukui prefectural government of its plan to reactivate the aged No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at the Takahama nuclear power plant in the central Japan prefecture.
The power supplier aims to reactivate the No. 1 reactor July 28 and the No. 2 reactor Sept. 15. They will be the second and third reactors in Japan to be put back into operation beyond the regular operating life of 40 years.
After being informed of the plan, Yuichiro Sakamoto, a senior disaster management official of the Fukui government, urged Kansai Electric to “be aware always and strongly that it is activating the second reactor in the country with an operating life exceeding 40 years.”
Kansai Electric’s No. 3 reactor at its Mihama plant, also in Fukui, was the first case.
After the March 2011 triple meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in northeastern Japan, the country introduced the current rule of limiting the nuclear reactor operating life to 40 years in principle, which can be extended for up to 20 years.
Source: Jiji Press