Court Rejects Injunctions against Mihama, Takahama Nuclear Reactors

Kanazawa, Ishikawa Pref., Nov. 28 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese high court branch on Friday rejected injunctions by local residents seeking to halt the operations of aging nuclear power reactors run by Kansai Electric Power Co. in the central prefecture of Fukui.

The plaintiffs had argued that safety measures at the No. 3 reactor at the Mihama nuclear plant and the No. 1-4 reactors at the Takahama nuclear plant were inadequate.

Kazuaki Ono, presiding judge at the Kanazawa branch of Nagoya High Court, said the residents' claims are only based on "abstract risks of nuclear plants." Both plants "pose no specific danger threatening the personal interests of residents," he said.

The judge rejected the residents' argument that the assumed earthquake motions set for the reactors were low.

It is natural for assumed earthquake motions to be lower than actual motions observed in Japan in the past, Ono said. The method for setting the assumed motions is "not unreasonable".

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]