Kyushu Electric's Genkai-3 reactor restart draws closer

The utility has started loading fuel into the facility.

According to Enerdata, the Japanese power utility Kyushu Electric Power Company has begun to load fuel into the Genkai-3 nuclear reactor core in the Higashimatsuura District (Saga Prefecture) in Japan. The unit has been stopped since December 2010 Fukushima disaster but the Japanese nuclear regulator Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) confirmed that the reactor - along with Genkai-4 reactor stopped in December 2011 - met new regulatory standards.The restart of the facility was also approved by the city of Genkai and the Saga Prefecture governor in March and April 2017, respectively.

The Genkai-3 and 4 reactors are pressurised water reactors (PWRs) rated 1,127 MW each (1,180 MWe gross), which were commissioned in 1994 and 1997, respectively. The two units could be restarted by the end of the fiscal year ending in March 2018, depending on the approval of seven other municipalities within a 30-km radius of the plant.

So far, five Japanese nuclear reactors have cleared inspections confirming they meet the new safety standards and have resumed operation again since their shutdown in 2011: Sendai-1 and Sendai-2 -Kyushu Electric), Ikata-3 (Shikoku Electric), Takahama-3 and Takahama-4 (Kansai Electric). Another 19 have applied to restart.

This article was originally published in Enerdata.