Four Japanese utilities applied to restart eight idled reactors under new post-Fukushima safety regulations that took effect Monday.
The units reside at four plants around the country, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported, and all are pressurized water reactors. Unlike boiling water reactors, PWRs were given five years to install filtered venting systems under the new rules.
The Asahi Shimbun reported the Nuclear Regulation Authority will devote about 80 staff members to the six-month-long inspections. Once they are complete and utilities receive approvals from national and local governments, reactors can resume power production, possibly early next year. Unit 3 at Shikoku Electric Power Co.’s Ikata plant and units 3 and 4 at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Takahama plant have also applied to use reprocessed MOX fuel, which contains plutonium.
Units 3 and 4 at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Ohi plant currently are the only units online in the country, which saw all 50 of its reactors shut down following the 2011 accidents at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima plant. The other units applying for restarts are: Hokkaido Electric Power Co.’s Tomari 1, 2 and 3 and Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai 1 and 2. The operating Ohi reactors also applied for the inspections.