Saga governor approves restart of Genkai nuclear reactors in Japan

Units 3 and 4 finally gained approval.

Enerdata reported that the governor of the Saga prefecture in southern Japan has approved the restart of the third and fourth reactors of the Genkai nuclear power plant, which has been stopped since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. 

In January 2017, Japan's nuclear regulator Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) considered that the Genkai-3 and 4 units meet new regulatory standards and approved their upgrade plans and the city of Genkai green-lighted the restart in March 2017.

"The Genkai reactors are rated 1,127 MW each (1,180 MW gross) and were commissioned in 1994 and 1997, respectively, before being shut down after the Fukushima disaster in 2011. The units could be restarted by the end of the fiscal year ending in March 2018, depending on the approval of seven other municipalities within a 30-km radius of the plant," Enerdata said.

Out of the 45 commercial reactors in Japan, Enerdata said that only three are in operation, namely Kyushu Electric’s Sendai-1 and 2 in the Kagoshima prefecture and Shikoku Electric's Ikata-3 in the Ehime prefecture.

This story was originally published by Enerdata.