10 May (NucNet): Japan’s Ohi-4 nuclear reactor unit in Fukui Prefecture, southwest Japan, is scheduled to be connected to the grid on 11 May 2018 with full commercial operation resuming on 14 May, the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum said.
Jaif said the 1,127-MW pressurised water reactor unit had been restarted on 9 May and had reached criticality at 03:00 local time today, 10 May.
Ohi-4 will become the eighth nuclear plant at five sites to be restarted under new regulatory standards introduced following the March 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi accident, Jaif said.
In April 2018 Ohi-3 resumed commercial operation for the first time since the unit had been shut down in September 2013 following the accident.
Ohi-3 and -4 were the first two reactors to resume operation in Japan following the accident, but were both taken offline in September 2013 for scheduled refuelling and maintenance.
Their restarts where delayed when, in May 2014, the Fukui district court ruled that it would not allow Ohi-3 and -4 to return to operation.
The governor of Fukui Prefecture allowed the restart of Ohi-3 and -4 in November 2017 after courts rejected challenges by anti-nuclear groups.
The Ohi nuclear station has four nuclear units, but according to Jaif the two older units, Ohi-1 and -2, have both been permanently shut down. They began commercial operation in 1979. Ohi-3 began commercial operation in 1991 and Ohi-4 in 1993.
