A Japanese court lifted Thursday an injunction it had issued in April against a power supplier restarting two nuclear reactors in a coastal western city, as the government aims to revive nuclear energy despite reservations among the public.
A district court in Fukui prefecture ruled in favor of the earthquake resistant design of Kansai Electric Power Co.’s No. 3 and No. 4 reactors in Takahama, saying their safety level were high enough for reactivation, Kyodo News reported.
In April, another judge at the court had approved the injunction despite the reactors having cleared safety screening of the country’s new nuclear regulation watchdog under post-Fukushima regulations.
Kansai Electric responded by filing an objection.
Japan began shutting its 48 nuclear power plants after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 damaged four reactors in Fukushima, melting the cores in three of them and forcing thousands of people to leave their homes, most of whom have been able to return.
Since then, Japan has reformed its safety rules to create a new regulatory body tasked with insuring that reactors that do come back on line comply with new safety restrictions gleaned from what has been learned of the disaster.
All reactors had remained offline since 2013 until August, when the Sendai-1 reactor was restarted in the city of Satsumasendai, Kagoshima prefecture.
Public opinion polls have consistently shown that roughly 60 percent of Japanese oppose a return to nuclear power production, even though the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe considers nuclear power’s revival as critical to the economy.
The presiding judge during Thursday’s ruling, Jun Hayashi, said he acknowledges the standards of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, but added that 'the possibility of a severe accident is not completely ruled out', according to Kyodo.
Kansai Electric responded to the decision by saying fuel rod assemblies will be inserted into reactor No. 3 starting Friday, with the aim of restarting it in late January followed by reactor No. 4 in late February.
The agency cited lawyers of residents who applied for the injunction as expressing plans to appeal the new ruling to the Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court.
The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said it is aiming to have 20-22 percent of Japan's total electricity supply generated from nuclear power in 2030 as part of efforts to lower electricity prices and shore up the economy.
Prior to the Fukushima crisis, nuclear power contributed 30 percent.
By Satuk Bugra Kutlugun
Anadolu Agency
enerji@aa.com.tr