TOKYO, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- A Japanese high court on Friday overturned a lower court's decision and ordered the suspension of a nuclear reactor in western Japan following an injunction made by local residents over safety fears.
The Hiroshima High Court ordered Shikoku Electric Power Co. to suspend operations of the No. 3 reactor at the Ikata nuclear power plant in Ehime Prefecture.
Three residents living on islands in Yamaguchi Prefecture close to the plant had filed appeals against a lower court's decision made in March last year in favor of the utility continuing operations of the reactor.
The lower court had ruled that the plant's operations could be continued as the risk of a large-scale eruption or earthquake occurring during the reactor's operational lifetime was low.
The lower court also said that Nuclear Regulation Authority's (NRA) safety regulations were acceptable.
The high court on Friday, however, conversely, determined that an active fault in the area and Mt. Aso., an active volcano situated just 130 km from the plant, indeed posed potential risks that could not be ruled out.
"Research on the active fault is insufficient and the Nuclear Regulation Authority's judgment that it is not a problem is incorrect," said Presiding Judge Kazutake Mori.
"Shikoku Electric needs to also take into account less than catastrophic eruptions at the caldera of Mt. Aso," he said in handing down the court's ruling, adding that there had been errors made in the process leading to the NRA approving the reactor's restart.
The reactor has been idled for regular inspections, but following the removal of spent mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) completed on Wednesday, the first time Japan has conducted such an operation, Shikoku Electric had been planning to bring the reactor back online.
The high court had previously ordered the utility to suspend the operations of the reactor in December 2017, following an injunction filed by a different group of residents.
The order was revoked a year later by a different judge, however, with the reactor being rebooted in October 2018.
Shikoku Electric will likely lodge a complaint with the court in objection to the latest injunction, set to be heard by a different judge at the high court in Hiroshima, sources with knowledge of the matter said Friday.
