Fuel loading is underway at unit 2 of Chugoku Electric Power Company’s NPP in Japan’s in Matsue in Shimane Prefecture after approval was issued by the Nuclear Regulation Authority. The unit is expected to restart in December with commercial operation scheduled for early January 2025.
The 820 MWe boiling-water reactor (BWR), which started operations in 1989, is the same type as the reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings’ Fukushima Daiichi NPP, which suffered a triple meltdown following the Great East Japan Earthquake. It will be the second BWR to restart, following the planned restart later in October or November of unit 2 at Tohoku Electric Power Co’s Onagawa plant in Miyagi Prefecture.
Chugoku Electric said the process of loading the 560 fuel assemblies is being conducted around the clock and it will take around a week. This will be the first time the Shiane 2 has been refuelled since operations were suspended at the end of January 2012, following the Fukushima disaster.
Shimane 2 was set to resume in August, but this was postponed because of required safety upgrade work. In 2021, the NRA approved a draft report finding that Shimane 2 meets the revised regulatory standards. Following approvals by the cities of Matsue, Izumo, Yasugi and Unnan, in June 2022 the governor of Shimane prefecture approved the restart of the unit. Shimane 2 was the 17th Japanese reactor to pass NRA’s safety screenings and the fifth to receive regulatory approval to restart.
Shimane unit 1 – a 460 MWe BWR that started commercial operation in March 1974 – is now being decommissioned. However, Chugoku has initiated the regulatory process for starting up Shimane 3, a new 1,373 MWe advanced boiling water reactor, which is nearing completion.
To date, following the closure of all of Japan’s reactors in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, 24 have already been decommissioned. Of the 27 that have undergone safety screenings, the restart of 17 has been approved, 12 of which have already resumed operations – all pressurised water reactors.
