Delay in inspections will postpone restart

May 12, 2015

Sendai reactor restart unlikely until late July

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

May 12, 2015 - Updated 04:51 UTC+2

The planned restart of a reactor at the Sendai nuclear plant will be pushed back until late July or later due to a delay in onsite inspections.

The reactor is one of the 2 facilities at the plant that cleared the country's tighter regulations introduced after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

Kyushu Electric Power Company submitted a revised plan over the ongoing onsite inspections to the country's nuclear regulators on Monday. It extends the inspection process for the No.1 reactor by around one week.

The utility's earlier inspection plan assumed loading nuclear fuel in early June to restart the reactor in mid-July. But the regulators said the schedule was too tight.

Kyushu Electric has not specified the timing for a restart, but it now appears unlikely until late July at the earliest.

The onsite inspections began more than one month ago. But as of last week, only 7 of the roughly 180 items were checked. The utility has assigned more than 200 additional personnel to speed up the process.