The governor of Kagoshima, Japan, has requested that Kyushu Electric Power Company shut down the two operating Sendai reactors in his district in order to have them re-evaluated for safety issues, Kyodo News reported.
Governor Satoshi Mitazono was elected last month to his office, running on an anti-nuclear platform. At a press conference, the governor said that, “concerns are growing among residents,” specifically regarding emergency planning in the event of a severe accident at the nuclear power plant, which is home to two of the country's three currently running reactors.
“We want you to respond in a sincere manner, as concerns are growing among residents following the earthquakes in Kumanmoto,” the governor said concerning seismic activity that jolted a neighboring prefecture in April that killed 50 people and damaged 100,000 homes.
The two strongest tremors that struck were measured on a magnitude scale at 6.5 and 7.3.
Media reports noted that the Japanese regulator for nuclear power, the Nuclear Regulation Authority, responded to inquiries by stating they had no plans for ordering the company to suspend operations. While Kyushu Electric said it would respond to the governor's request in early September, media also noted that the two reactors were scheduled for mandated inspection shut downs on Oct. 6 and Dec. 16, respectively.
A high ranking official in the country's central government said that there would be correspondence with the governor, but there were no further plans of action. The central government has been pushing for a return to nuclear power, taking the position that plants that pass post-Fukushima Daiichi safety standards should be allowed to operate with an “understanding” among local residents.
The two reactors caught in the political crossfires are the first two to restart in the country following the events of March 2011 that culminated in the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear generating station northeast of Tokyo.
Unit 1 at the Sendai plant was restarted in August 2015, while Unit 2 was restarted two months after that. A local court, meanwhile, rejected a lawsuit filed on behalf of 12 local residents that was aimed at shutting down the reactors.
Two other reactors in Japan – Unit 3 and 4 at Kansai Electric Power Company's Takahama nuclear power plant in Fukui prefecture – have been restarted, but have since shut down in response to a court order in the case of Unit 3 and due to technical issues in the case of Unit 4. Aside from the Sendai units, the only other reactor restarted in the country is the Ikata Unit 3 in the Ehime prefecture operated by Shikoku Electric Power Company. That unit was restarted in August and recently reached 100 percent of generating capacity.