In FY24,\u00a0Tohoku Electric Power\u2019s Onagawa Unit 2\u00a0resumed power generation on November 15 and entered commercial operation on December 26, becoming the first boiling water reactor (BWR) in Japan to restart under the revised regulations. Shortly afterward,\u00a0Chugoku Electric Power\u2019s Shimane Unit 2\u00a0restarted on December 23, and began commercial operation on January 10, 2025.<\/p>\n
Including these two BWRs, a total of\u00a014 reactors\u00a0were in operation during the fiscal year, as follows:<\/p>\n
Together, the 14 reactors had a combined generating capacity of\u00a013.25 GW. While the total number of NPPs in Japan remained unchanged at\u00a033 units, with a cumulative capacity of\u00a033.08 GW, the\u00a014 restarted units alone achieved a capacity factor of 80.5%, even when accounting for the mid-year restarts of Onagawa-2 and Shimane-2.<\/p>\n
Japan is also seeing an increasing number of nuclear units entering long-term operation:<\/p>\n
In response to the aging of Japan\u2019s nuclear fleet, new regulatory provisions will be enforced from\u00a0June 6, 2025, based on the GX Decarbonization Power Supply Bill (enacted in May 2023): GX stands for \u201cgreen transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the bill, reactors in operation for more than 30 years must submit and gain approval for a\u00a0long-term facility management plan\u00a0every decade. Of the 14 restarted units,\u00a012 will be subject to this requirement, and the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) is now reviewing the submitted plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In FY24,\u00a0Tohoku Electric Power\u2019s Onagawa Unit 2\u00a0resumed power generation on November 15 and entered commercial operation on December 26, becoming the first boiling water reactor (BWR) in Japan to restart under the revised regulations. Shortly afterward,\u00a0Chugoku Electric Power\u2019s Shimane Unit 2\u00a0restarted on December 23, and began commercial operation on January 10, 2025. Including these two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":7507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[871,601,1296,19,1236,18],"class_list":["post-7498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-npps","tag-aging","tag-capacity-factor","tag-long-term-operation","tag-nra","tag-nuclear-capacity","tag-restart"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t