Japan will shut down its last operating nuclear reactor this weekend, leaving the country without nuclear power for the first time over 40 years.
On Saturday, engineers will begin work to shut down the No. 3 reactor at the Tomari atomic power plant in Hokkaido, which is due for its regular maintenance outage. By Sunday, the unit will officially come offline, the plant operator said.
The complete shutdown of the country's 50-strong reactor fleet demonstrates how severely last year's accident in Fukushima affected the country's nuclear perspective.
Last month, howevever, Japanese Trade Minister Yukio Edano has announced that two of Japan's nuclear reactors – the No. 3 and No. 4 units at Ohi – have cleared the government’s technical review on resilience against severe events. According to the BBC, regional authorities must also give approval before the two reactors can begin operating.
The reactors – owned by Kansai Electric Power Co. – will need to be restarted, otherwise the utility will be 16.3 percent short of peak demand this summer, according to government-released data.