The Osaka district court has revoked the operating permits for Ohi-3 and Ohi-4 reactors at Kansai Electric’s nuclear power plant in Fukui prefecture (Japan). According to the court, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA)’s assessment did not sufficiently take into account the vulnerability of the units to major earthquakes. This is the first a Japanese court has challenged a safety evaluation by the NRA under tougher safety standards imposed after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
The two 1,127 MW pressurized water reactor (PWR) were shut down in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. The two units were given permission to restart in August 2012 but were taken offline again by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) in September 2013. Ohi-3 restarted in March 2018 and resumed commercial operation in April 2018, while Ohi-4 restarted in May 2018 and resumed commercial operation in June 2018. The two other reactors of the Ohi nuclear power plant, Ohi-1 and 2, rated 1,175 MW each and commissioned in 1979, have been removed from the list of commercial reactors; in December 2017, Kansai Electric decided to decommission the two reactors, citing technical problems to meet new safety standards rather than related costs.
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