Kyushu Electric Power Co. jumped through all hoops but one to get its Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture back online this year.
Kyushu Electric Power Co. jumped through all hoops but one to get its Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture back online this year.
Its failure to submit all the necessary paperwork means the reactors are unlikely to be reactivated until 2015, even though the facility cleared tougher safety standards.
Kyushu Electric had planned to submit the paperwork to the Nuclear Regulation Authority by the end of September, but it did not get around to completing the procedures by Sept. 30.
The utility said it will take two to four weeks to prepare the remaining documents required for restarts of the plant’s two reactors in Satsuma-Sendai.
Even after the company obtains the green light from the NRA, the reactors must clear on-site inspections of equipment. That almost certainly will rule out restarts by the end of this year.
The nuclear watchdog on Sept. 10 formally cleared the reactors, the first such approval under stricter safety standards established after the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011.
The NRA will continue examining whether the utility’s application documents meet the watchdog’s conditions. The screening and equipment inspections will each take a couple of months.
On Sept. 30, Kyushu Electric submitted only a portion of the documents to make corrections to its previous application for approval of construction plans that list safety measurements.
In addition to the remaining paperwork, the company is required to present documents to make corrections to its applications for approval of manuals stipulating safety measures while the reactors are in operation or in case of accidents.
The utility initially planned to submit all the necessary documents by the end of May. As the company installed new equipment and took steps to raise the plant's ability to withstand strong earthquakes, the documents have increased to more than 40,000 pages, causing a delay in its preparation.
Kyushu Electric officials expect to submit all relevant documents by the end of October.