Kyushu Electric Power Co. has decided to resume construction on the second unit at the Matsuura Thermal Power Station in Matsuura City, Nagasaki Prefecture. Once a bid is selected, construction on the 100kW generator will begin in 2014 and is slated to end in the early 2020s. Matsuura’s first unit went into operation in 1989 and construction on the second unit began in 2001 with an expected completion date of 2005. Waning demand for electricity pushed the start date back to 2011, and construction was suspended in 2004. Kyuden is pushing to resume the No. 1 and 2 reactors at the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant and the No. 3 and 4 reactors at the Genkai Nuclear Power Plant, but the planned the No. 3 reactor at Sendai no longer seems feasible and the aging No. 1 and 2 reactors at Genkai are slated for decommissioning. Based on this, Kyuden decided that it needs to upgrade the inefficient coal-burning plants it has been relying on since all of its nuclear reactors were suspended after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Source: Nishinippon Shimbun 3/26
Matsuura Thermal Power Station. Photo source.
