Japan's Kyushu Electric seeks new nuclear unit

TOKYO, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Japanese utility Kyushu Electric Power Co (9508.T) said on Wednesday it wants to build a third nuclear unit at one of its two plants to cope with a projected rise in power demand, and is preparing to ask local governments for permission.

Kyushu Electric will make a final decision on adding a nuclear unit to its Sendai plant in northern Japan, after a study into the proposed unit's environmental impact is completed around the end of December.

"We are in the process of making preparations for the additional unit," a company spokesman said.

"We think that the environmental investigation is likely to reveal no problems. Demand for our power will be on the rise, but if we were to build a thermal power plant, it would increase CO2 emissions." Japan's electric power industry has pledged to cut CO2 emissions to an average of 0.34 kg per kilowatt hour a year through to 2012. [ID:nT176070]

The Kyushu spokesman declined to comment on the envisioned power capacity for the No.3 unit, but domestic media said it would be a generator of around 1,500-megawatts, which would be Japan's biggest single nuclear unit.

The new unit is not projected to begin operations until 2016-2019, the Nikkei business daily and Yomiuri daily reported. The Sendai plant has two units with total capacity of 1,780 megawatts, both of which started operating more than 20 years ago.

Kyushu operates four additional nuclear units at another nuclear plant in Genkai, Saga prefecture, which has a total capacity of 3,478 megawatts.

Kysuhu currently derives about 40 percent of power from its nuclear plants. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)