Chugoku Electric Power on Saturday restarted its Shimane nuclear power station in western Japan, shuttered since shortly after the 2011 Fukushima meltdown, the company said.
The long-delayed restart of the plant's 820 megawatt (MW) No. 2 reactor, which was shut down in January 2012, boosts the number of Japan's operational reactors to 14, with a combined capacity of 13,253 MW.
Japan's demand for liquefied natural gas and thermal coal is expected to fall next year, with Tohoku Electric Power also recently resuming operations of the 825 MW No. 2 reactor at its Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture. The Onagawa plant was the first boiling water reactor to be brought back online after the 2011 disaster and the Shimane plant is the second.
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