(Bloomberg) -- Kansai Electric Power Co., one of Japan’s regional power utilities, will halt two reactors at its Takahama nuclear power plant north of Osaka because they’re unlikely to meet the government’s anti-terrorism requirements, according to the Mainichi newspaper.
Reactors No. 3 and No. 4 will stop operating from next summer, as it has become clear that construction of security measures won’t be completed in time for their respective deadlines in August and October, the report said, without citing anyone. The work is behind by about a year, it said.
The company on Monday said in a stock exchange filing that it has no determination on when the work will be completed and no decisions have been made. Its shares fell as much as 1.3%, while the benchmark Topix was little changed.
Kansai Electric has been embroiled in a scandal centered on Takahama after company officials accepted nearly 320 million yen ($2.9 million) in cash and gifts from a former official of the town that hosts the atomic plant. It has already cost Chairman Makoto Yagi his job, while the company’s president, Shigeki Iwane, said he intends to leave after an independent investigation into the payments is submitted.
The scandal may delay the restarts of the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors, currently down for maintenance, which were planned for July and March 2021, respectively, Mainichi said. That would leave the company with a serious shortage of power generating capacity.
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