Kansai Electric files for an official restart of the Mihama-3 nuclear unit

It will be the final regulatory stage in its restarting process.

Enerdata reported that the Japanese power utility Kansai Electric has filed a pre-service inspection application to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) for the restart of the Mihama-3 nuclear reactor in the Fukui prefecture (Japan). Once endorsed by the NRA, these pre-service inspections will mark the final regulatory stage in the restart process of the facility.

The restart application was sent in March 2015. The unit's design was approved by the NRA in October 2016, while the safety programme was endorsed in November 2016. The NRA also approved an extension for the unit's operating period until 2036, which makes it the third unit to be granted a license extension enabling it to be operating beyond the 40-year timeline. Mihama-3 is a 780 MWe pressurized water reactor (PWE), which entered commercial operations in 1976 and has been offline since 2011.

The article was orignally published by Enerdata.