Sendai: 100% output

August 29, 2015

Sendai nuclear power plant achieves 100% output

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html

Aug. 29, 2015 - Updated 07:15 UTC+2

The operator of Japan's only online nuclear plant says it has raised turbine output to full capacity.

Kyushu Electric Power Company said on Saturday that engineers at the Sendai plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, had raised the turbine output to 100 percent of its capacity of 890,000 kilowatts.

The utility says that on Monday it will also increase the reactor output to full capacity.

The plant resumed work to ramp up output at its No. 1 reactor on Thursday after a 6-day suspension due to a problem with one of the reactor's condensers.

The company plans to restart commercial operations on September 10th as scheduled, if nuclear regulators find no problems in their final inspections on that day.

The plant is likely to become the first nuclear facility in commercial operation since the Ohi plant in Fukui Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast halted operations in September 2013.

Kyushu Electric Power Company restarted the Sendai plant earlier this month. The plant's No. 1 reactor was the first in Japan to go back online under new regulations introduced after the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns in 2011.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority says it will conduct final inspections carefully.