Kansai Electric Power Co. said Thursday it has shut down the No. 2 reactor at its nuclear power plant in Mihama, Fukui Prefecture, due to technical trouble.
The shutdown is expected to further restrict Kansai Electric's power supply and make winter electricity shortages more likely in the Kansai region, as only two of the utility's 11 nuclear reactors in Fukui Prefecture — the No. 2 unit at the Oi plant and the No. 3 unit at the Takahama plant — currently remain in operation.
The Oi reactor is scheduled to go offline Dec. 16 and the Takahama unit in February, both for regular inspections, Kansai Electric said.
The Mihama plant's No. 2 reactor was taken offline after a pressure valve malfunctioned, causing cooling water to leak. As the amount of water leaking was about to exceed the processing capacity of the plant's wastewater treatment system, the utility started to manually shut down the reactor Wednesday.
The reactor, which had been scheduled to cease operations for a regular check Dec. 18, will undergo a periodic inspection as planned.