Japan Restarts Additional Nuclear Reactor

Japan’s Kansai Electric restarted a 47-year-old reactor at its Western nuclear reactor at Takahama Sep. 15, adding around 826 MW of power and likely to cut gas demand.

• The reactor had been idle since November 2011 following the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
• Japan has 12 operating reactors with combined capacity of 11.6 GW, or a third of the 33.1 GW of capacity from 33 reactors designated for commercial use.
• Analysts say each gigawatt of nuclear power is equivalent to a 1m mtpa of LNG, so the restarts could trim annual imports by a tenth in 2023.
• LNG imports by Japan, the world's second-biggest buyer of the fuel behind China, have fallen 17.4% in July, customs data shows, thanks to nuclear power restarts and growing use of renewable energy.
• However nuclear and renewable energy cannot fully replace gas consumption in Japan. Inventories of LNG Sept. 10 were at their lowest in over a year, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has said.