Shikoku Electric Power Co. said Friday it will scrap the oldest of the three reactors at its Ikata nuclear complex in the western Japanese prefecture of Ehime starting on May 10, as it would be too costly to continue running the nearly 40-year-old unit.

    The power company estimates an investment of more than 100 billion yen ($889 million) would be needed to beef up safety measures for restarting the apparatus which started operation in 1977.

    Shikoku Electric concluded that it would not make economic sense to reactivate the aging reactor, as it has a relatively small output capacity of 566,000 kilowatts, while the company aims to reboot the larger and newer No. 3 unit at the same complex in July.

    The No. 3 reactor began operating in 1994 and can produce 890,000 kw. The Ikata plant is equipped with the 566,000-kw No. 2 unit, which first went on-stream in 1982. 

Source : QNA