Japan's Tepco maintains Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear operations after quake

Tokyo (Platts)--9Feb2012/258 am EST/758 GMT

Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company is maintaining normal operations at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in northwestern Japan after a strong earthquake hit the region Wednesday evening, a company official said Thursday.

Currently, Tepco's operational nuclear power generation capacity stands at 1.356 GW, from the No. 6 reactor at its 8.468 GW Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant. This represents just 7.8% of the company's total installed nuclear capacity of 17.31 GW.

The quake was a strong 5 on the Japanese seismic scale and hit the Sado region in offshore northwestern Japan at 09:03 pm (1203 GMT) local time Wednesday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The company is expected to be without any nuclear output in late March, when the No. 6 reactor is scheduled to undergo maintenance. Japanese regulations require nuclear power operators to carry out scheduled maintenance at reactors at least once every 13 months.

It is not clear whether any of the company's other currently closed reactors will be allowed to restart.

--Takeo Kumagai, takeo_kumagai@platts.com

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