Kansai Electric Power Co. suspended reactor 3 at its Takahama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture early Tuesday for a scheduled check, leaving only two out of the nation's 54 commercial reactors still online.
The last two reactors — unit 6 at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture and unit 3 at Hokkaido Electric Power Co.'s Tomari plant in Hokkaido — will both be suspended by late April for regular inspections stipulated for reactors every 13 months.
As no reactors have been restarted after going through regular checks since the Fukushima disaster started last March, it is highly likely Japan will have no operating nuclear reactors this spring.
With the Takahama reactor shutdown, Kansai Electric, which has 11 reactors and had produced half of its electricity by nuclear power before the quake- and tsunami-triggered disaster in the Tohoku region, forecasts that its supply capacity could fall short of peak demand by 8.8 percent by mid-March under one scenario.
Since December, the government has been asking homes and offices in the utility's service area to cut electricity usage by more than 10 percent from year-earlier levels.
Kepco President Makoto Yagi expressed readiness Monday to resume nuclear power generation.
"We will strive to restore trust by taking all possible measures to ensure the safety of nuclear power generation," he said.
The shutdown of Takahama's reactor 3 also means Fukui, which hosts 14 reactors — the largest number by prefecture — no longer has any in operation.
Fukui has hosted nuclear power facilities for about 42 years.
