High Court Revokes Injunction against Restart of Oi N-Reactors

July 4, 2018

Kanazawa, Ishikawa Pref.- The Kanazawa branch of Nagoya High Court on Wednesday reversed a lower court's injunction against the restart of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s; Oi nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan.

The ruling was the first by a high court on a lawsuit filed to block the restart of a nuclear reactor brought offline after Japan's worst nuclear accident, which occurred at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s; tsunami-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in northeastern Japan in March 2011.

In May 2014, Fukui District Court ordered the power supplier serving the Kansai western region not to put the two Oi reactors back into operation, upholding local residents' petition against the restart. The court recognized flaws in the plant's functions to cool the reactors and contain radioactive materials in the event of a major earthquake.

The district court said the restart of the reactors could violate the personal rights of residents living within 250 kilometers of the plant.

In the lawsuit, the petitioners argued that Kansai Electric underestimates the strength of ground motions from a possible major quake, noting that the firm's method to estimate the shake was inappropriate. The firm countered by claiming that the reactors were designed with a high level of safety.

Kansai Electric reactivated the Oi No. 3 and No. 4 units in March and May this year, respectively, after a suspension of about four and a half years, as the district court injunction will not take effect as long as the lawsuit continues and the Nuclear Regulation Authority concluded in May 2017 that the two reactors meet the country's new safety standards introduced after the Fukushima No. 1 plant accident. Jiji Press