Units 6 and 7 of Tokyo Electric Power Company's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture meet Japan's new regulatory standards, the Nuclear Regulation Authority announced today. They are the first of the country's boiling water reactors determined to meet the standards.

Kansai Electric Power Company has today announced that it will not seek permission to restart units 1 and 2 of its Ohi nuclear power plant in Japan's Fukui Prefecture. The company will now apply to decommission the two 1175 MWe pressurised water reactors, which are approaching 40 years old.

Kansai Electric Power Company has applied to the Japanese regulator for pre-service inspections of unit 3 of its Mihama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture. These inspections mark the final regulatory stage in the restart procedure for the country's reactors.

A Japanese high court has today overruled a lower court decision that allowed Shikoku Electric Power Company to continue operating unit 3 of its Ikata nuclear power plant in Ehime Prefecture. Ikata 3 is one of five units that have so far restarted since Japan took all its operable reactors offline for safety checks following the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has restarted the 30 MWt High-flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor (Hanaro), which has been offline for the past three-and-a-half years. During this period, the reactor has undergone safety upgrades.

EDF has received permission from France's Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire to restart three reactors at the Tricastin power plant after carrying out repairs to a canal embankment. The regulator ordered the temporary shutdown of Tricastin's reactors on 27 September because of the risks of failure of a 400 metre long portion of the embankment of the Donzére-Mondragon canalin the event of an earthquake. 

The governor of Japan's Fukui Prefecture has today approved the restart of units 3 and 4 of Kansai Electric Power Company's Ohi nuclear power plant. The utility reportedly plans to restart both units by mid-March.

Germany's Energiewende policy has made things worse for the climate by shutting down carbon-free nuclear capacity and locking in the dependency on coal burning for decades, despite hundreds of billions in investments and subsidy-schemes. This is the conclusion of the European Climate Leadership Report 2017, Measuring the Metrics that Matter published last week in Bonn, Germany, at Conference of the Parties 23 by the NGO Energy for Humanity.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has amended three regulations covering nuclear facilities and uranium mines to apply the lessons learned from the Fukushima accident of 2011. The amendments include updates to radiation protection requirements during emergencies, and programs to ensure workers are prepared to respond effectively in emergency situations.

Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority has today approved a draft report that concludes units 6 and 7 of Tokyo Electric Power Company's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant meet the country's new safety standards. The draft document has now been released for public comment and could be formally approved by year-end.

Japan's nuclear regulator today approved the 'construction plans' for strengthening Ohi units 3 and 4 and Genkai unit 3. The plans are the second of three applications required during the restart process. The units must undergo further inspections before being permitted to restart.

Tokyo Electric Power Company has addressed many of the recommendations made following a 2015 assessment of operational safety at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant by the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, the IAEA says work should continue in some areas.