The Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant will resume power generation in early November; President of Tohoku Electric Power Co.: ‘Restart schedule is almost as planned’

Tohoku Electric Power Co. announced Saturday that the No. 2 reactor at the Onagawa nuclear power plant will restart later this month, a move seen as a de facto reactivation of the plant, which has been shuttered since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

The company said power generation is expected to resume in early November.

The company had previously stated that reactors at the plant, which straddles Onagawa and Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture, would restart “around October.” Kojiro Higuchi, president of the company, explained that “the schedule for restarting the reactors is almost going according to plan.”

Reactor No. 2 is undergoing inspections in preparation for restart, and the reactor will restart following confirmation from the Nuclear Regulation Authority. This will be the first time a boiling water reactor has been restarted since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

A boiling water reactor was also used at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which suffered an accident in the disaster.