Plaintiffs head for the Fukuoka High Court to hear a ruling on the government’s approval of the operation of the Nos. 1 and 2 units at Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai nuclear power plant on Aug. 27, 2025, in Fukuoka. (Kyodo)
FUKUOKA (Kyodo) — A Japanese high court on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling rejecting a call by residents to invalidate the approval given for the operation of two nuclear reactors in Kagoshima Prefecture in southwestern Japan.
The Fukuoka High Court ruling on the Nos. 1 and 2 units at Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai nuclear power plant was the first by a high court on the legitimacy of the approval under the new safety standards introduced in the wake of the nuclear crisis in Fukushima in 2011.
In handing down the ruling, Presiding Judge Norihiro Matsuda said the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s guidelines on volcanic impact have grounds to be reasonable, saying they were drawn up based on the views of experts.
The decision followed a ruling by the Fukuoka District Court in June 2019 that said the guidelines were not unreasonable.
The plaintiffs had claimed that approval for the reactors was given without sufficient consideration of the risk of catastrophic volcanic eruptions under unreasonable safety guidelines, while the government argued that it is acceptable to discount the likelihood of such extreme eruptions.
The No. 1 unit resumed operation in August 2015 under the stricter safety regulations, becoming the first reactor in Japan to operate after the nuclear crisis. In October that same year, the No. 2 unit was reactivated.
Among similar lawsuits, the Osaka District Court ruling on the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors of a nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture was the only one in favor of the residents. Currently, four similar lawsuits are pending at three high courts.
AloJapan.com