Tsuruga nuclear power plant

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Tsuruga nuclear power plant is a shelved nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan.

Project Details

Table 1: Unit-level project details for Tsuruga nuclear power plant

Unit name	Status	Commissioning year	Retirement year	Nameplate capacity	Reactor type	Model	Owner	Operator
1	Retired	1970	2015	357 MW	Boiling water reactor	BWR-2	Japan Atomic Power CO	Japan Atomic Power CO
2	Mothballed	1987	–	1160 MW	Pressurized water reactor	M (4-loop)	Japan Atomic Power CO	Japan Atomic Power CO
3	Shelved	–	–	1538 MW	Pressurized water reactor	Mitsubishi advanced pressurized water reactor (APWR)	Japan Atomic Power CO	Japan Atomic Power CO
4	Shelved	–	–	1538 MW	Pressurized water reactor	Mitsubishi advanced pressurized water reactor (APWR)	Japan Atomic Power CO	Japan Atomic Power CO

Table 2: Additional unit-level timeline details for Tsuruga nuclear power plant

Unit name	Construction start	First criticality (more info)	First grid connection	Commercial operation	Retirement date
1	November 24, 1966	October 3, 1969	November 16, 1969	March 14, 1970	April 27, 2015
2	November 6, 1982	May 28, 1986	June 19, 1986	February 17, 1987	–

Table 3: Additional unit-level capacity details for Tsuruga nuclear power plant

(Read more about nuclear capacity definitions.)

Unit name	Reference net capacity	Design net capacity	Thermal capacity
1	340 MW	341 MW	1070 MWt
2	1108 MW	1115 MW	3411 MWt

Location

Table 4: Unit-level location details for Tsuruga nuclear power plant

Unit name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
1	Tsuruga, Japan	35.7506, 136.0197 (exact)
2	Tsuruga, Japan	35.7506, 136.0197 (exact)
3	Tsuruga, Japan	35.7506, 136.0197 (exact)
4	Tsuruga, Japan	35.7506, 136.0197 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the nuclear power plant:

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Background

In March 2010, Unit 1 of the Tsuruga nuclear power plant was granted a license extension by the local government to operate until 2016 in order to bridge the gap before Units 3 and 4 came online. In March 2015, Japan Atomic Power (JAPC) announced it would decommission Unit 1 of the Tsuruga nuclear power plant. This followed the Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry’s (METI's) Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) revision of accounting provisions regarding decommissioning costs, made in order to encourage older and smaller units to be permanently shut down.

Unit 2 of the Tsuruga nuclear power plant suspended operation as part of the nationwide reactor shutdown following the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Since December 2012, the NRA has been investigating a fault zone directly below Unit 2 that could be seismically active. In November 2015, JAPC submitted an application to restart the unit, but it is still under review.

Japan Atomic Power first submitted plans for Units 3 and 4 of the Tsuruga nuclear plant to the Nuclear & Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) in 2004. Based on new geological data, JAPC submitted a revised construction application to NISA on October 2009. The approval process was expected to take two years but was passed to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). The construction of Units 3 and 4 was planned to start in late 2010 and be commissioned in March 2016. Since the nationwide reactor shutdown in response to the 2011 Fukushima disaster, construction has been deferred. The investigation of possible seismic activity below Unit 2 could have implications for the planning of Units 3 and 4, but they are still undergoing a final safety assessment.

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Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of global nuclear power plants, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Nuclear Power Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.