Tomari 3, owned and operated by Hokkaido Electric Power Co began commercial operation on the afternoon of 22 December, becoming Japan’s 54th operating unit.
The reactor is a 912MW PWR located around 60km west of Sapporo along the Sea of Japan coast. Construction on the unit started in November 2003, with commissioning in January 2009 and first criticality and electricity production in March 2009.
With the new unit now operating all three units at the Tomari NPS will have a combined output of 2070MW (units 1 and 2 are 579MW each). Together they are expected to account for about 25% of Hokkaido Electric Power Co’s installed (gross) capacity, and about 40% of its total generated electricity.
Japan now has one reactor under construction – Shimane 3 – an ABWR being built by Chugoku Electric Power Co. More reactors are planned. Ohma 1 an ABWR to run on a full MOX core is planned for Aomori prefecture with construction slated to start in 2010.
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