Japan court blocks restart of two nuclear reactors News
Japan court blocks restart of two nuclear reactors

[JURIST] The Fukui District Court issued an injunction on Tuesday halting the restart of two nuclear reactors is Takahama, Japan. These reactors, operated by Kansai Electric Power [official website], met the basic safety guidelines set by Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA) [official website, in English] and were scheduled to re-open this year. However, the court ruled [Reuters report] in favor of the locals that requested the injunction, citing the lack of credible evacuation measures and an underestimated earthquake risk. The court stated [BBC report] that the NRA’s regulations lack rationality. This decision will further delay government plans to restart reactors, and Japanese courts are set to review other similar injunctions. All nuclear reactors in Japan remain offline since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster [IAEA backgrounder; JURIST news archive].

Japan’s court system [official website, in English] has been busy adjudicating issues relating to the 2011 Fukushima disaster. In August 2012 Japanese authorities opened a criminal investigation into the power plant meltdown after more than 1,300 people filed [JURIST reports] a criminal complaint against the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) for causing the catastrophe and the resulting radiation. The complaint came two months after an expert panel reported [JURIST report] that the disaster was preventable, and was not caused solely by the earthquake and tsunami, but that officials did not act quickly enough to prevent the meltdown. In March 2012 a group of TEPCO shareholders filed [JURIST report] a USD $67 billion lawsuit against TEPCO also for failing to prevent the disaster. In August 2011 five months after the meltdown, Japan’s legislature voted to compensate those adversely affected by the incident by creating a fund for dispensing money to such victims.

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