Boiling water reactor at Shimane nuclear plant to be restarted in early December

Chugoku Electric Power notified the Nuclear Regulation Authority on Monday that it plans to restart the No. 2 reactor at its Shimane nuclear power plant on Dec. 7.
The Shimane No. 2 unit will be the second boiling water reactor, after the No. 2 unit at Tohoku Electric Power’s Onagawa nuclear plant, to be brought back online since reactors of the same type were crippled in the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima No. 1 plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings.
According to Chugoku Electric, the control rods that suppress the fission reaction at the Shimane reactor will be lifted on Dec. 7. The reactor is scheduled to begin commercial operation in early January.
The Shimane plant is the only nuclear power plant in the country that is located in a prefectural capital. The No. 2 reactor was shut down in January 2012 for a routine inspection.
Chugoku Electric completed work to implement safety measures for the reactor last month, and finished loading nuclear fuel into the reactor on Nov. 3.