Japan high court rules nuclear reactors can restart

Tokyo : A Japanese appeals court on Tuesday ruled that a pair of 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 Osaka High Court in western Japan struck down an injunction by a lower court that had forced the two reactors to 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 kilometres (215 miles) west of Tokyo.

A lower court in a city adjacent to Fukui ordered Kansai Electric Power (KEPCO) in March last year to suspend their operation, spurring the utility to appeal to the Osaka High Court.

Outside the courthouse, plaintiffs said judges failed to take into consideration the wishes of those living near the reactors.

"Unjust ruling that ignores national, regional public opinion," read a banner they unfurled after the decision.

"Judicial negligence that ignores wishes of residents," read another.

Anti-nuclear campaigners also denounced the ruling.

"While the overturning of the injunction was not wholly unexpected in the notoriously nuclear-friendly Japanese legal system, it clears the way for KEPCO to restart reactors that have serious unresolved safety issues," Kendra Ulrich of Greenpeace Japan said in a statement.