A Kyushu Electric Power Company official told Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority that paperwork required for the restart of the mothballed Sendai nuclear power station would be completed by the end of March, while others named June as the target for a restart of the mothballed facility.
At an NRA meeting, the plant's Managing Executive Officer Akira Nakamura said paperwork for Unit 1 would be completed by the end of February, while paper work for Unit 2 would be handed in by the end of March.
The plant is playing catch-up, having missed a paperwork deadline in December.
The paperwork is the next step required to restart the country's nuclear power option after the March 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Station caused a shut down of the country's 48 nuclear power plants. The reverberations of the disaster have also been felt around the world with Germany, France, Sweden and many other countries re-assessing their nuclear power priorities.
There are still calls for caution in Japan, but Sendai NPP was the first in the country to receive local government approval for a restart. The next steps before a restart include the paperwork and on-site operation checks.
Reports say the officials are aiming for a restart in June. Three sources who declined to be identified confirmed the start date, Reuters reported.
In a jolting headline, media reports say that inspections of the Onagawa NPP, which is the closest plant to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant, was revealed to have 4,188 inspection violations. Cited in media reports were the lack of proper monitoring equipment and errors on records of serial numbers of various equipment. Some workers were writing in “no issue,” in response to equipment that was not even there, Sputniknews.com reported.
The number 4,188 can play various ways. It could be cited as a new emphasis on being thorough. It could be seen as a realistic turn of events, given the plant has been shut down for three years. Or it could be viewed as proof that nuclear power is dangerous.
Plant officials pointed out that none of violations involved safety issues. They also apologized for the number of violations.