Japan / Completion Of Ohma Reactor Delayed By Two Years

Electric Power Development Company, or J-Power, had been planning to begin construction of major facilities at the Ohma nuclear power plant in Aomori Prefecture in the latter half of this year, but told a local assembly it has decided to delay it by about two years.

The delay means the plant, construction of which began in May 2010, will start operation in fiscal 2026, Japanese media reports said.

J-Power said it hopes to start construction of the reactor and related facilities in the latter half of 2020 and complete it by the second half of 2025.

The Ohma plant is a 1,325-MW advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR). Construction work was temporarily suspended after the Marc 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi accident.

J-Power initially sought to start commercial operation of the plant in fiscal 2021, but put it back by one year in 2015 and postponed it to fiscal 2024 in 2016.

In December 2014 J-Power applied for safety checks to be carried out to make sure the facility complied with revised standards brought in after Fukushima-Daiichi. But regulatory examinations have centred on tsunami and earthquake protection at the complex and not on its nuclear facilities.