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Updated January 18th, 2020 at 11:35 IST

Japan court halts nuclear reactor restart over earthquake, volcano risk

A court in Japan has ordered a halt to the restarting of a nuclear reactor citing earthquake and volcano risk because the plant is located near a fault line.

Reported by: Shubham Bose
Japan
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After the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident Japan shut down all its nuclear powers stations and some still remain closed. On Friday a Japanese court ordered that a nuclear reactor that is situated near a fault line must remain shut because there exists the danger that the reactor may be hit by an earthquake.

Unknown risks

A lower court had in March given the reactor a go-ahead to re-open but the Hiroshima High Court overturned its decision yesterday. This decision will be a serious boost to the country's anti-nuclear movement. Shikoku Electric Power, the company that operates the plant has said that they will appeal the high court's ruling.

The case against the plant was first lodged by the residents of the neighbouring region who claimed that the dangers posed by the fault line and its close proximity to the reactor had not been properly evaluated. The presiding high court judge on the case, Kazutaka Mori in a statement there exists a fault line within 2 kilometres of the nuclear plant and that Shikoku Electric has failed to conduct adequate surveys.  The judge also added that volcanic eruptions cannot be predicted in advance and that he found errors and inadequacies in the reports provided by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.

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Japan and Nuclear power

Before the 2011 Fukushima accident, Japan generated 30% of its energy from nuclear reactors and had even planned to increase it to 40% according to reports. While Japan has 42 nuclear reactors that are operable but only 9 reactors across 5 power plants are operating in Japan currently.

Japan's first-ever nuclear emergency had forced the evacuation of 140,000 resident across a 20 kilometre of the plant. After the disaster reports suggested that as many as 80% of Japanese citizens were against the use of nuclear energy and that they did not trust the government when it came to information about radiation. The Japanese public has turned against the use of nuclear power even though Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has long insisted that Japan needs nuclear energy in order to power the world's third-largest economy. 

Read: Japan Convicts Australian Who Sought To See His Children

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Published January 18th, 2020 at 11:35 IST

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