Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Co. will begin studying plans for a nuclear power reactor, the first step toward constructing a new one since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, Nikkei reported.
The regional utility, which currently operates seven reactors in western Japan, will start geological surveys at its Mihama Nuclear Power Plant, Nikkei reported without citing where it got the information. Kansai Electric will announce plans to resume studying new reactor builds in the coming days, the report said, after such surveys had been suspended since the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
A spokesperson for Kansai Electric said the company was not the source of report. While Kansai Electric believes the time has come for the company to carefully consider building and replacing with new reactors, no concrete plans have been decided at this time, the spokesperson said.
Countries including Japan are increasingly embracing nuclear energy in light of rising power needs. Use of artificial intelligence, the expansion of data centers and electrification have all led to more demand for clean and stable electricity, something companies like Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. are clamoring for.
Japan, the home of the most recent nuclear meltdown accident, has also taken steps in recent years to shift toward using more atomic energy. The country updated its national energy strategy in February, in which it dropped a decade-long policy of reducing dependence on nuclear power.
The country took all of its nuclear reactors offline following the 2011 disaster. Of the 33 commercially available reactors remaining today, 14 have resumed operations after passing stringent restart protocols. Kansai Electric’s Mihama Nuclear Power Plant has three reactors, two of which are being decommissioned.
Source: Bloomberg
