The Osaka High Court on Tuesday ruled that two nuclear reactors halted by a lower court order can be restarted,…
TOKYO —
The Osaka High Court on Tuesday ruled that two nuclear reactors halted by a lower court order can be restarted, in a victory for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s energy policy.
Japan shut down all of its reactors after the Fukushima nuclear crisis in 2011, relying on imported fossil fuels to power its economy. Due to public opposition, only a handful have since been restarted.
But Abe has repeatedly said that resource-poor Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, needs nuclear power and has pushed to get reactors back into operation despite public anxiety.
In Tuesday’s decision, the high court struck down an injunction by a lower court that had forced the two reactors to be shut down over safety concerns.
At issue were the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at the Takahama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture, some 350 kilometers west of Tokyo.
The district court in Otsu ordered Kansai Electric Power Co (KEPCO) in March last year to suspend their operations, spurring the utility to appeal.
KEPCO hailed the decision to cancel the injunction, saying the lower court’s move “lacked rationality.
