Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant Reactor to Resume Power Generation Early November; Tohoku Electric Power Co. President: ‘Schedule for Restart Is Almost as Planned’

The Yomiuri Shimbun

20:57 JST, October 5, 2024

Tohoku Electric Power Co. announced Saturday the No. 2 reactor at the Onagawa nuclear power plant will be restarted later this month, a move seen as a de facto reactivation of the plant, which has been shut down since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

The company said power generation is expected to resume in early November.

The company had previously stated that the reactors at the plant, which straddles Onagawa and Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture, would restart “around October.” Kojiro Higuchi, president of the company, explained that “the schedule for restarting the reactors is proceeding almost as planned.”

The No. 2 reactor is undergoing inspections in preparation for the restart, and the reactor will restart after confirmation from the Nuclear Regulation Authority. This will be the first time a boiling water reactor has been restarted since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

A boiling water reactor was also used at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which suffered an accident in the disaster.