NRA Officially Determines Takahama-1 & -2 NPPs to be Compatible with New Regulatory Standards

Home > News > NPPs > Regulation & Safety > NRA Officially Determines Takahama-1 & -2 NPPs to be Compatible with New Regulatory Standards

On April 20, Japan's Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) officially finalized the results of its safety examinations of the Takahama-1 and -2 Nuclear Power Plants (PWRs, 826MWe each), owned and operated by the Kansai Electric Power Co. (Kansai EP), to the effect that the units comply with the new regulatory standards. This is the first instance of "aging reactors" – in service for more than 40 years – being granted approval of their basic designs. In order to restart the units, they will still have to clear examinations for approval of extensions of their operating periods.

To date, seven plants have cleared safety examinations for compatibility with the new regulatory standards, including Takahama-1 and -2 this time.

After obtaining approval of the basic design of the Takahama-3 and -4 NPPs in February 2015, Kansai EP filed applications for safety examinations for the Takahama-1 and -2 NPPs in March 2015, and also, in April 2015, for approvals of extensions from 40 to 60 years of their operating periods. In July 2015, regarding standard ground motion (Ss) for Takahama-1 and -2, Kansai EP made corrections to the applications for approval of construction work plans and extensions of operating periods after changing the maximum acceleration from 550 gal to 700 gal.