Japanese utility Kansai Electric Power has secured approval to continue operating the 870MW No.3 and No.4 reactors at its Takahama nuclear power plant past their 40-year lifespan.
Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) on 29 May granted approval for the Takahama reactors in Fukui prefecture to extend their operational lifespan by 20 years to 60 years. This comes 13 months after Kansai filed an application in April 2023.
The Takahama No.3 and No.4 reactors started operating in 1985, meaning they would reach their 40th year of operation in 2025. Japan's nuclear guidelines in principle limit a reactor's service lifespan to 40 years. But the rules allow nuclear operators to extend the lifespan by up to 20 years just once with permission from the NRA.
Last year's update to the nuclear rules, which will take effect in June 2025, will also allow nuclear operators to use reactors beyond the maximum 60 years by excluding the time spent on stricter safety scrutiny following Japan's 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. This is subject to approval from the trade and industry minister.
Tokyo is gearing up efforts to restore more nuclear capacity at existing reactors to enhance the country's energy security and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Under the current basic energy policy, Japan aims to cut GHG emissions by 46pc by the April 2030-March 2031 fiscal year against the 2013-14 level. This goal assumes nuclear will make up 20-22pc of the power mix, up from 9pc in 2023-24, requiring the restart of many more reactors.
Japan currently has 33 nuclear reactors, with 12 operational that comprise 11.6GW of power generation capacity. To achieve the 2030-31 nuclear goal, Japan needs to increase operational capacity to 21-23GW, based on Tokyo's power generation target of 934TWh in 2030-31. This suggests Japan would have to restart all five reactors, which a combined capacity of 5.5GW, that have already passed the NRA's safety scrutiny and many of the reactors that are currently under the NRA's investigation, whose capacity totals 7.9GW, over the remaining six years.
The government started discussions to review the energy policy on 15 May, aiming to revise it by the end of this fiscal year. It is still unclear what year it is targeting and what ratio will be set for nuclear and other power sources in the new policy. But the deliberation would form a key part of efforts to update the GHG emissions reduction goal, ahead of a submission of the country's new nationally determined contribution in 2025, with a timeframe for implementation until 2035.
