Japan's Kansai Electric planned to restart the No. 1 nuclear reactor at its Takahama power plant in late July, the company said June 21, followed by the planned restart of its No. 2 reactor at the same plant scheduled for mid-September after delays, the company said June 21, a move likely to alter its LNG position in coming months.
Kansai Electric released its plan to restart both reactors after receiving approval from the Nuclear Regulation Authority to begin loading fuel at the No. 1 reactor, a company spokesperson said. The NRA has yet to give its green light to Kansai Electric to start loading fuel at the No. 2 reactor.Kansai Electric planned to begin loading fuel at the Takahama No. 1 reactor on June 22 in order to restart the reactor in late July and resume power generation in early August, the spokesperson said.
The utility planned to load fuel at the Takahama No. 2 reactor in early August to restart the reactor and resume power generation in mid-September after securing an NRA approval.
This restart follows Kansai Electric's May 2 announcement on the delayed restart of the Takahama No. 1 and No. 2 reactors from June 3 and July 15, respectively, citing that the NRA was unlikely to be able to complete its review of fire protection measures at the units early enough to realize previous restart plans.
Spot LNG
The planned restart of the Takahama No. 1 and No. 2 reactors came to light after Kansai Electric bought one LNG cargo for end-August delivery on June 16 to secure sufficient LNG in preparation for the extended outage of the Takahama nuclear reactors, LNG market sources said.
Kansai bought the cargo at a premium of 35-40 cents/MMBtu to Platts JKM, the sources said. The premium was higher than the previous trade due to a lack of sellers for August cargoes, a Singapore-based LNG trader said.
The spot LNG purchase came after Kansai Electric sold three LNG cargoes for August loading in recent months, market sources said, in anticipation of the restart of the Takahama nuclear reactors before summer.
The restart of Takahama No. 1 and No. 2 reactors would mean that Kansai Electric will operate all of its seven operable nuclear reactors for the first time under Japan's new regulatory standards introduced in 2013 following shutdowns for scheduled maintenance in 2011.
The restart of the No. 1 and No. 2 Takahama reactors would also mark the country's second and third nuclear reactors with over 40 years of commercial operations following the NRA's approvals in 2016, along with Kansai Electric's 826 MW No. 3 Mihama nuclear reactor which was restarted in 2022.
