Japanese power utility TEPCO has agreed to work with the Niigata prefecture in north-west Japan to review the safety of its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, which has been offline since 2012. The planned review will include a safety review, evacuation plans and radiation impacts studies, which could take until 2020 and could delay a potential restart of the plant.
The 8 GW Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant consists of seven reactors, five of which rated 1,067 MW each were commissioned between 1980 and 1990 and two 1,315 MW units were commissioned in 1992 and 1993.
TEPCO has presented several options for restarting the plant, including a plan to restart two units by March 2020 in a business plan approved in May 2017. The company aims to restart its nuclear fleet to reduce its power generation costs and boost earning to repay the estimated Yen 21,500bn bill (US$194bn) related to the Fukushima disaster. TEPCO also wants to restructure and find domestic partners for its transmission and nuclear activities within 10 years.
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