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Japan Restarts Onagawa Reactor Near 2011 Quake Epicenter After 13 Years Offline

Oct 29, 2024, 06:56 AM

On October 29, 2024, Tohoku Electric Power Co. restarted the Onagawa nuclear power plant's No. 2 reactor in Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan. This marks the first boiling water reactor of the same type as those at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to resume operations since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. The reactor had been offline for 13 years and is the first in eastern Japan to restart since the disaster. The Onagawa plant, which is the closest nuclear facility to the epicenter of the 2011 earthquake, underwent extensive safety upgrades before resuming operations. Its restart is considered a significant milestone in Japan's efforts to revive its use of nuclear energy and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The reactor, with a capacity of 820 megawatts electric (MWe), is expected to contribute significantly to the region's energy supply.