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Dismantling of Reactor Begins at Hamaoka Nuclear Plant; Power Station Set to be Fully Decommissioned in FY2042

Courtesy of Chubu Electric Power Co.
The reactor pressure vessel lid removed from the No. 2 reactor of the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:50 JST, March 18, 2025

Chubu Electric Power Co. has begun dismantling the No. 2 reactor at its Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station in Omaezaki, Shizuoka Prefecture, it said Monday.

The plant’s Nos. 1 and 2 reactors have been undergoing decommission work since 2009. This is the first dismantling of a reactor at a commercial nuclear power plant in Japan.

The dismantling of the No. 2 reactor was started prior to the No. 1 because a storage site has been secured for the waste that will be generated by taking apart the No. 2 reactor, the company announced Monday.

The lid of the reactor pressure vessel inside the reactor building was removed Monday by a crane. The spent nuclear fuel has already been taken out, and the dismantling of the pressure vessel and containment vessel will proceed using special cutting equipment and other tools.

The Nos. 1 and 2 reactors will be fully dismantled by fiscal 2035. The decommissioning work, including the removal of the reactor buildings, is scheduled to finish in fiscal 2042.

There are 24 nuclear power plants in Japan that are scheduled for decommissioning. For all but three — the Hamaoka plant’s Nos. 1 and 2 reactors and Japan Atomic Power Co.’s Tokai nuclear power plant in Ibaraki Prefecture — the decision to decommission them was made after the 2011 accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

The No. 1 reactor at the Hamaoka plant started operations in 1976 and the No. 2 in 1978, but the No. 1 reactor was shut down in 2001 and the No. 2 in 2004 due to issues including problems, inspections and construction work.

Their operations were ultimately terminated in January 2009 due to profitability issues and other factors, after it was found that implementing new seismic countermeasures would cost a large amount of money.

Decommissioning work involves four phases, and dismantling reactors is the third. In December, the Nuclear Regulation Authority approved changes to the specific dismantling methods for reactors, and work began at the Hamaoka power plant.