The Hiroshima High Court (Japan) has ordered Japanese power utility Shikoku Electric Power to suspend operations at its 846 MW Ikata 3 nuclear reactor, reversing a 2019 ruling by the Yamaguchi District Court, which considered that the plant operator had sufficiently proved that the plant would remain safe in case of earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. Ikata-3 is the only operable nuclear reactor of Shikoku Electric. Shut down for regulator maintenance since late December 2019, it was expected to restart in a few months but it will now have to remain idle pending a court appeal.
The Ikata-3 reactor, commissioned in 1994 in Ehime prefecture, was idled in 2011 after the Fukushima disaster. The Ehime Prefecture gave its approval for the restart of the reactor in October 2015, and the approval of the Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) followed in March 2016. Shikoku Electric restarted the reactor in August 2016 but the company had to idle it for about a year in 2017 after a court decision. The Hiroshima High Court had then allowed the company to resume operations in September 2018.
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