
On December 7, 2024, Chugoku Electric Power restarted Shimane Nuclear Power Plant’s Unit 2 for the first time since its shut down in January 2012 following the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The 820MW unit is expected to restart power generation later this month and return to commercial operation in early January 2025.
Shimane’s Unit 2 was commissioned in February 1989. It is Japan’s only operational nuclear reactor located in a prefectural capital.
The power plant’s 460MW Unit 1, a boiling water reactor (BWR) like Unit 2 and the recently restarted Onagawa Unit 2, was commissioned in 1974 and decommissioned in 2015. Unit 3, a 1.37GW advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR), is currently under construction. While Chugoku EPCO was planning to commission it in 2012, the plan was postponed indefinitely following the Fukushima disaster.
With the latest restart, the number of restarted nuclear reactors in Japan reached 14, with a combined output of 13.2GW. For details about nuclear power plant operational statuses, as well as overview of key policy and regulation-related developments, subscribe to our The Japan Power Industry Executive monthly report.