Japan’s reactor capacity utilization rate rebounds to 20.1% in Nov.

Genkai nuclear power plant, owned by Kyushu Electric Power Co.,

TOKYO (Kyodo) — The utilization ratio of Japan’s 54 commercial nuclear reactors came to 20.1 percent in November, rebounding for the first time since the March 11 disaster crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, with 10 in operation as of the end of the month, the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum said.

After falling to a record low 18.5 percent in October, the utilization ratio turned upward in November as Kyushu Electric Power Co. restarted the No. 4 reactor at the Genkai power plant in Saga Prefecture, which had been suspended in October due to a malfunction.

Equivalent data is available going back to April 1977.

The improvement is bound to be temporary, as operation of two reactors has already been suspended in December, one because for a periodic checkup and another because of mechanical trouble — and two others are scheduled to go offline later this month for checkups.

A photograph shows the Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture.(Mainichi)

As no reactor is expected to restart operations this month, the number of operational reactors will slide to six by the end of December, thereby pushing down the overall utilization ratio again, the organization said.

The latest data still incorporates four damaged reactors at the Fukushima plant operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Co., as their legally mandated decommissioning has not begun.