Efforts to restart Japan’s nuclear power plants suffered a setback and a victory this week, as a district court upheld an injunction preventing one restart and the Nuclear Regulatory Agency approved the restart of another reactor.
The Fukui District Court’s ruling prevents the restart of Kansai Electric’s two units at the Takahama nuclear power plant, despite approval from the NRA, the county’s nuclear regulatory agency. Kansai appealed the injunction, calling an April ruling unfair given the point that the company had taken every step required by the government for restarting the reactors that were taken offline as a response to the meltdown events at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in March 2011 after the facility’s cooling systems were flooded during a tsunami event triggered by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake.
On Wednesday, the NRA gave the permission for Shikoku Electric Power Company to restart Unit 3 at the Ikata nuclear power station in southwestern Japan. Unit 3, which has a capacity of 890 megawatts, began operations in 1994. Unit 2 at the facility on the island of Shikoku, 660 miles west-southwest of Tokyo, is a 566 megawatt reactor that began operating in 1982. Unit 1, which is nearly 40 years old, also has a 566 megawatt capacity.
Shikoku has not applied for permission to restart either of the two older reactors. Barring any interference by the courts, Unit 3, which was approved for a restart Wednesday, is two steps away from resuming operations. It requires local government approval and the NRA needs to approve the final details of a restart.
The courts could intervene, however. A lawsuit was filed in December 2011 that is seeking to close down the Ikata power station permanently.