Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Co said on 2 August that it will restart the unit 1 at its Takahama NPP in Fukui Prefecture in June 2023. The plant, which is over 40 years old and has been idle since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, was approved for restart by Fukui Governor Tatsuji Sugimoto in April. The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) in 2016 gave approval for the plant to operate beyond the 40-year limit, granting an extension of up to 20 years, after screening Kansai Electric's stricter safety upgrades.
While the company had loaded fuel assemblies into the reactor and confirmed the safety of devices in May this year, Kansai Electric passed deferred restart of the reactor as construction work to build an antiterrorism facility was not finished by the deadline set by NRA. It e will be completed in May 2023. Takahama 2, which was also built more than 40 years ago, will be brought back online in July 2023. The antiterrorism facilities at the two reactors are expected to cost Kansai Electric around JPY170 billion ($1.5m).
