Kyushu Electric Power Co. on Dec. 22 sought approval from the Nuclear Regulation Authority to start the 28-year process of decommissioning an aging reactor at its Genkai plant in Saga Prefecture.
Kyushu Electric Power Co. on Dec. 22 sought approval from the Nuclear Regulation Authority to start the 28-year process of decommissioning an aging reactor at its Genkai plant in Saga Prefecture.
It is the first reactor-decommissioning plan submitted to Japan’s nuclear watchdog under new regulations established after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. One new guideline sets the life span of a nuclear reactor at 40 years, in principle.
Kyushu Electric plans to start decommissioning the No. 1 reactor of the Genkai plant next fiscal year, which starts in April. The total cost of the four-stage project is estimated at 36.4 billion yen ($300 million).
The decommissioning work is expected to generate about 3,000 tons of radioactive waste, but the disposal sites have not been picked.
The Genkai No. 1 reactor began operating in 1975. Kyushu Electric decided to decommission the reactor in March.