Archive for September, 2015

Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power Company completed loading all 157 fuel assemblies into the core of unit 2 of the Sendai nuclear power plant on 13 September in preparation for the reactor’s restart.

The company expects to restart Sendai 2 before the end of this year. Unit 1 was restarted in August, the first Japanese reactor to be resume operation after the country’s entire fleet was taken offline by the government following the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident.

Areva faces three major challenges as it turns itself around from its record 2014 losses, company CEO Philippe Knoche said today.

Those challenges are making sure that the company manages to complete large projects; making sure that it adapts to post-Fukushima market conditions, and making sure that it addresses the level of debt resulting from past investments. Knoche gave examples of such challenges in an address to the World Nuclear Association’s 2015 Symposium in London today.

Knoche cited a “large project” in ...

The Sendai-1 nuclear reactor in southwestern Japan returned to commercial operation at 16:00 local time yesterday, the first reactor to resume full operation in Japan since the March 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi accident.

Operator Kyushu Electric Power Company said commercial operation began after a comprehensive pre-service inspection was completed. The 846-megawatt pressurised water reactor unit, which first began commercial operation in July 1984, was restarted on 11 August. All of Japan’s 48 commercial reactor units were shut down for safety checks and upgrades ...

Kyushu Electric Power Company has begun loading nuclear fuel into the second reactor at its Sendai nuclear station in southwestern Japan after completing a pre-service inspection of the unit, the company said in a statement.

According to Kyodo News the unit is scheduled to restart in mid-October under upgraded safety regulations adopted following the 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi accident. The number two reactor at the two-unit plant will become the second to be restarted in Japan since the post-Fukushima safety requirements came into ...