Both are pressurized water reactors that make 890 MW of power with a core tonnage of 72 tons of uranium dioxide.

The two-reactor Sendai plant was given priority and was approved by the NRA as meeting both its earthquake and tsunami assumptions in March 2014.

Design standards were further enhanced to take into account all other natural disasters, in particular volcanic eruptions and tornadoes, along with plans to address terrorist attacks.

John Large of the London-based consulting Engineers Large & Associates, provided opinion and evidence in an ongoing civil action in Japan contesting the restart of the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant[5] and separately Large & Associates prepared an assessment of the effectiveness of the Japanese NRA recently introduced guide for the evaluation of nuclear power plant sites with respect to the potential effects of volcanic activity, specifically aligning this to the Sendai NPP presently proposed for restart following a four-year shut down in the aftermath of Fukushima Daiichi.

[7] On May 28, 2015, The Nuclear Regulation Authority approved the station's emergency plans, which was the last regulatory hurdle remaining before restarts could happen.

The NRA completed its pre-operational examinations and gave Kyushu Electric Company the green light to place fuel inside the reactor vessel.

[11][12] Naoto Kan, former Prime Minister (2010–2011), was among the protesters who were demonstrating in front of the Sendai plant when the reactor was restarted.

[15] The unit 1 was shut down for maintenance from October to December 2016; Kagoshima governor Satoshi Mitazono approved the restarting of the reactor despite his personal opposition to nuclear power.

[21] Reactor #2 was shut down for the same reason in May 2020; it is expected to be restarted in January 2021 after installing anti-terrorism safety measures and completing maintenance.