Japanese court issues injunction to halt operations of newly-restarted Takahama reactors

A Japanese district court on Wednesday issued Kansai Electric Power Co. with an injunction to stop the utility from operating two nuclear reactors at the Takahama plant, which were among the first to be rebooted in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima crisis following enhanced safety checks.

The Otsu District Court gave the order to the utility citing "problematic points" and "questions remaining" over the power company's emergency response plans should a major accident occur such as a sizable tsunami, that was seen to wipe out the cooling functions at the Daiichi plant in Fukushima, leading to multiple core meltdowns in reactors there.

The district court said that the utility's evacuation measures and countermeasures to such an occurrence remained equivocal and ruled that the Takahama No. 3 and No. 4 reactors should be prevented from operating. A spokesperson for the utility said that it would abide by the court order.

Kansai Electric Power Co. will now have to shut down the Takahama No. 3 reactor, which was only brought back on line in January this year, following the No. 4 reactor already being placed in cold shutdown on March 2 after an emergency alarm was triggered at the plant. The utility, prior to the injunction, was planning to bring the No. 4 reactor back online this month.

While the utility said it will look to have the injunction overturned, the decision will deal a blow to the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who is supporting the rebooting of all of Japan's idled reactors, as part of its energy policy that is aiming to see 20 percent of the nation's power being produced by nuclear means, by 2030, as import costs for fossil fuels for turbine generators has and continues to stretch the state bank balance, as well as raise environmental concerns, as such power stations struggle to make up for supply deficits in resource-poor Japan.

As the plant in Fukui Prefecture is set to go offline, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the prime minister's top spokesperson, told a press conference that the government's overall stance on restarting the nation's reactors that have passed the nuclear watchdog's new safety standards remained the same.

Suga said that while the utility would deal with the situation appropriately, the government would look into the details of the injunction, which saw Presiding Judge Yoshihiko Yamamoto state Wednesday that there were "problems even in the latest safety measures, such as in the designing of the quake-resistance standards," and that the utility had "failed to offer sufficient explanations regarding the safety of the Takahama plant," as quoted by local media.

The Fukui District Court previously prevented a resumption of operations at Takahama last year, but the court removed that injunction in December and Kansai Electric Power Co., Japan's second-largest after the embattled Tokyo Electric Power Co. -- owner and operator of the stricken plant in Fukushima -- was allowed to resume operations. Endit