Shikoku Electric Power eyes 40-year decommissioning for Ikata-2 nuclear reactor

Restarting was considered uneconomical due to the scale and costs of required changes.

Japanese power utility Shikoku Electric Power has submitted a decommissioning plan to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) for its 538 MWe Ikata-2 pressurized water reactor (PWR) in Ehime prefecture (Japan). According to the plan, the decommissioning of the unit will last about 40 years and will be carried out in four stages. Ikata-2 is now the ninth operable Japanese reactor to be announced for decommissioning since the Fukushima disaster in March 2011.

Ikata-2 began operating in March 1982 and was taken offline in January 2012 for periodic overhauls. Shikoku Electric announced in March 2018 that it did not plan to bring the reactor online since the scale and cost of the modifications required to upgrade the unit to meet Japan's revised safety standards made it uneconomical to restart it.

In June 2017, the NRA approved Shikoku Electric's plans to shut down the neighbouring 538 MWe unit Ikata-1, whose decommissioning plan will also last 40 years spread over 4 stages.

This article was originally published by Enerdata.