Japan court allows nuclear reactors to reopen News
Japan court allows nuclear reactors to reopen

[JURIST] The Fukui District Court in Japan lifted an injunction on Thursday against allowing two nuclear reactors to reopen. Japan ordered closed all of its nuclear reactors after the Fukushima Disaster in 2011. A group of residents filed an injunction to keep the nuclear reactors closed [JURIST report] in Takahama earlier this year because they believed it would not withstand another strong earthquake [NYT report]. The reactors are expected [BBC report] to re-open the reactors in January.

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 [JURIST report] a criminal investigation into the power plant meltdown after more than 1,300 people filed [JURIST report] 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.

THIS DAY @ LAW

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