Plaintiffs had pointed to the risk of a volcanic eruption affecting the site
A court in Japan has upheld a lower court ruling rejecting a request to overturn the government’s approval of the restart of two reactors at Kyushu Electric Power Company’s Sendai nuclear power station in Kagoshima Prefecture in the south of the country.
In the lawsuit against the national government, the plaintiffs, including local residents, demanded that the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s (NRA) effective approval of the continued operation of the reactors be reversed on the grounds that the NRA “failed to appropriately examine whether the possibility of a devastating volcanic eruption is small enough”.
In particular, the rationality of the NRA’s volcanic assessment guide used for its safety screening of the reactors was brought into question.
On 27 August the Fukuoka High Court affirmed that the NRA’s volcanic assessment guidelines for the plant were reasonable
The NRA gave the go ahead for the Sendai units’ restart in 2014 under new safety regulations adopted after the triple meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power station in 2011.
The two Sendai reactors were returned to service in 2015 with the restart of Sendai-1 marking the first operational restart of a Japanese nuclear reactor since all units were taken offline following Fukushima.
In 2023 the NRA gave permission for them to operate for more than 40 years. The licence extension allows Unit 1 to operate until July 2044 and Unit 2 until November 2045.
Before the Fukushima disaster Japan’s fleet of 54 nuclear plants generated about 30% of the country’s electricity, but were all shut down for safety checks following the accident. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the figure for 2023, was 5.5%, but the government want to see this climb to 20%.
Among the 33 operable nuclear reactors in Japan, 14 have now resumed operations after meeting post-Fukushima safety standards.
The restarted plants are: Sendai-1 and -2, Genkai-3 and -4, Ikata-3, Mihama-3, Ohi-3 and -4, Onagawa-2, Shimane-2 and Takahama-1, -2, -3 and -4.
