The Japanese utility Tohoku Electric Power has announced it plans to restart the 800 MW second unit of the Onagawa nuclear power plant, located in the Miyagi Prefecture of north-eastern Japan, in September 2024. In May 2023, the Sendai District Court had rejected a request from Japanese residents to keep the reactor offline.
Onagawa-2 will be the first reactor scheduled for a restart in parts of north-eastern Japan that were hit by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear accident. Onagawa-3 (800 MW) is also set up for restart in the future, while Onagawa-1 (500 MW) has been decommissioned in 2018.
In June 2023, the Japanese parliament enacted a law to allow nuclear reactors in Japan to operate beyond their current limit of 60 years, in order to help cut greenhouse gas emissions and ensure a sufficient energy supply for the country. Japan’s reliance on nuclear power was reduced following the Fukushima accident, dropping from 25% of the power mix in 2010 to 1% in 2015, and back to 5.3% in 2022. Before the accident, there were 54 reactors spread over 17 power plants (49 GW in 2010 against 33 GW in 2022).
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