With the restarting of the Takahama 4 reactor early yesterday morning, Japan now has four reactors back on-line.  The reactor is scheduled to start supplying electricity to the grid on May 22 and will gradually increase output until it reaches full-scale operation in mid-June.  The other three reactors that are on-line in Japan are the Sendai 1 and 2 and Ikata 3 power plants.

 

The fifth reactor scheduled to come on stream in Japan is Takahama 3 in which fuel loading was completed on Tuesday.  The reactor is scheduled to restart in June and to reach full capacity electricity generation in early July.  

 

Meanwhile, the assembly of Saga Prefecture in which the Genkai 3 and 4 nuclear plants are located, approved the restart of the plants on April 13.  The final step in the application process was achieved on April 25 when the governor of Saga Prefecture gave his approval to restart the reactors.  Both reactors are expected to come back on stream in the fall, so we can expect Japan to have at least seven reactors on-line by year-end. To date, seventeen other nuclear power plants have applied for restart in Japan. 

 

The significance of the startup of these power stations in terms of the uranium market is that they increase demand for nuclear fuel in a market this is currently in oversupply - which should ultimately be positive for the uranium market.

 

Japanese reactor restarts after lifting on injunction - World Nuclear News, May 17, 2017.