Kansai Electric Power Co has announced plans to restart Mihama unit 3 in June. The unit will return to full operations in July, but Takahama units 1 and 2 will not be able restart until further facilities are completed at those units.
Fukui Prefecture Governor Tatsuji Sugimoto last month approved the restart of Takahama 1 and 2 and Mihama 3, all of which are over 40 years old. Today, Kansai said it will begin loading fuel in Mihama 3 from 20 May, with the reactor starting up in late June. Load performance inspections will take place before full-scale operation in late July.
The company also said it plans to start fuel loading at Takahama 1 from 14 May and will carry out procedures to confirm the functions of various instrumentation and components. However, the company said it will not be able to complete facilities for dealing with "specific serious accidents" at the Takahama power station by the 9 June deadline, so the unit will be placed in "cold shutdown" from that date. The unit will restart when the construction of those facilities is completed, it said.
Kansai said it will proceed with plans for Takahama 2's restart after the completion of work on the new facilities and on other measures to improve safety.
Takahama 1 and 2 are 780 MWe (net) pressurised water reactors (PWRs), which began operating in 1974 and 1975, respectively. Mihama 3, also a 780 MWe PWR, entered commercial operation in 1976. The units were in 2016 granted licence extensions allowing them to operate beyond 40 years.
