Kyushu Electric suspends Sendai-1 nuclear plant's ramp-up (Japan)

Japanese power utility Kyushu Electric has suspended the ramp-up of power production of its 890 MW Sendai-1 nuclear reactor in Japan, which had been restarted earlier in August 2015, due to technical problems; seawater may have entered one of the pumps in the secondary cooling system. Kyushu Electric has thus decided to delay the production capacity ramp-up; the group planned to raise the reactor's capacity to 95% by 21 August and to achieve full power by 25 August, in order to restart commercial operation in September 2015. This decision is likely to revive the population's wide opposition to nuclear.

The restart of the Sendai-1 reactors was the first restart of a nuclear reactor under new safety rules enacted in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011. The Nuclear Regulation Authority of Japan had approved the restart of the Sendai-1 nuclear reactor in September 2014. So far, 25 nuclear reactors have applied to be restarted but are facing legal challenges as residents remain worried about potential dangers from neighbouring active volcanoes.