Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Company has been given prior consent by Fukui Prefecture and Takahama Town to replace the steam generators at units 3&4 of the Takaham NPP and to apply for replacement of the reactor internals at units 1&2.

In May the ageing reactors at units 3&4 were approved to continue operating for 20 more years by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). All four reactors have now been approved to run for 60 years. Units 3&4, 830 MWe pressurised water reactors (PWRs) that began operation in 1985, are currently online and will reach their 40th anniversaries in January and June of 2025. Kansai Electric applied for their extension in April 2023 after carrying out special inspections of the facilities. Units 1&2, 780 MWe (net) PWRs, which began operation in 1974 and 1975, were approved in June 2016 to operate beyond 40 years. In 2023, both reactors were restarted for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

Kansai thanked the authorities for their understanding regarding plans for a 20-year extension for units 3&4 and said: “We will continue to strive to further improve the safety and reliability of nuclear power plants, with the understanding of the local community and everyone else.”

The application for prior consent to replace the steam generators was submitted in November 2022. Kansai said it planned to replace the steam generators during scheduled outages, from June to October 2026 for unit 3 and October 2026 to February 2027 for unit 4. As to units 1&2, Kansai said: “We plan to apply for reactor installation change permission to the Nuclear Regulation Authority as soon as preparations are complete.”

Under regulations which came into force in July 2013, Japanese reactors have a nominal operating period of 40 years. One extension to this – limited to a maximum of 20 years – may be granted, requiring amongst other things, a special inspection to verify the integrity of reactor pressure vessels and containment vessels after 35 years of operation. However, in May 2023, the Japanese government enacted a bill to introduce a new system that will allow the country’s nuclear reactors to operate beyond the current 60-year limit. The legislation comes into effect in June 2025.