Chugoku Electric Power Company has today requested permission from local governments to apply for pre-startup inspections of unit 3 at the Shimane nuclear power plant in Japan’s Shimane prefecture. Construction of the 1373 MWe advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) is nearing completion. Construction of Shimane 3 started in December 2005 and the unit had been scheduled to begin commercial operation in December 2011. However, in February 2011 – a month before the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant – Chugoku announced that fuelling and start-up of the reactor had been delayed by three months due to a fault with the control rod drive mechanism. Like Japan’s other operable reactors, Shimane 3 remained idle following the accident.
World Nuclear News 22nd May 2018 read more »