FUKUI: Fukui District Court on Friday rejected petitions to suspend aging nuclear reactors at two Kansai Electric Power Co. plants in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan.

The petitions were filed by local residents who claimed that safety measures were inadequate for the No. 3 reactor at the Mihama nuclear plant and the No. 1 to No. 4 reactors at the Takahama nuclear plant.

If an injunction had been granted, it would have been the first for a nuclear reactor whose operating period has exceeded 40 years.

The No. 3 reactor at the Mihama plant started operation in 1976, and the Takahama plant’s four reactors between 1974 and 1985. The Mihama reactor and the Takahama No. 1 and No. 2 reactors have been restarted with the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s approval for operation for more than 40 years.

Kansai Electric has also applied to operate the Takahama No. 3 and No. 4 reactors for more than 40 years and the Takahama No. 1 reactor for more than 50 years.

In the petitions, the plaintiffs claimed that the design basis earthquake ground motions for the Mihama and Takahama plants are unreasonably low, compared with past earthquakes observed in Japan.

They pointed to the risk of serious accidents due to the aging of the facilities and the inadequacy of evacuation plans.

Kansai Electric argued that it is impossible to simply compare design basis earthquake ground motions between different regions without taking into account regional characteristics.

The company also emphasized that it had obtained safety approval from the NRA.

JIJI Press