Japanese Court Approves Restart of Flooded Nuclear Plant... Denies Request to Ban Operation

Dismissal of Request to Prohibit Restart of Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant Unit 2
Maintenance Work Underway Aiming for Restart in February Next Year

A nuclear power plant that suffered tsunami damage during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, similar to the Fukushima nuclear plant, is expected to be restarted. Residents filed a request to prohibit the restart, citing issues with evacuation plans in the event of an accident at the plant, but the court dismissed the request, sparking anticipated controversy.

According to NHK on the 24th, the Sendai District Court dismissed the request by 17 residents of Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, to prohibit the restart of Unit 2 of the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant, filed against Tohoku Electric Power Company. Following the ruling, Tohoku Electric Power, which manages the Onagawa plant, plans to proceed with restarting the plant in February next year.

Panoramic view of Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant. (Photo by NHK)

Unit 2 of the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant, located in Miyagi Prefecture, was damaged and shut down during the Great East Japan Earthquake. A tsunami up to 13 meters high caused seawater to flood the reactor basement, and over 1,000 cracks were found in the reactor building. However, it passed the screening by the Nuclear Regulation Authority of Japan in February 2020, which was a prerequisite for the restart decision, and the local assemblies of Miyagi Prefecture, Ishinomaki City, and Onagawa Town adjacent to the plant agreed to the restart.

The residents who filed the lawsuit are known to live within the 'Emergency Protective Action Planning Zone' ranging from 5 to 30 km from the plant. They argued that the plant's evacuation plan has problems and that the suspension of operations should be maintained.

The evacuation plan assumes scenarios where radioactive materials are released due to a nuclear accident, and residents evacuate by car or bus. It includes establishing screening inspection sites within a 30 km radius from the plant to check for radiation exposure, and conducting simple decontamination if levels exceed the standard.

The residents claimed that large-scale congestion would occur around these screening inspection sites, causing delays in evacuation. They appealed that such delays would lead to unnecessary radiation exposure and ultimately infringe on their personal rights. The Yomiuri Shimbun analyzed, “This is the first time in lawsuits requesting nuclear plant restarts that the issue raised was not the safety of the plant itself but deficiencies in the evacuation plan,” and suggested that “it seems to be an attempt to narrow the issue deliberately to question whether the plant should be restarted.”

The plaintiff side, who received a dismissal ruling on the request to halt the restart of the Onagawa nuclear power plant, is displaying a sign that reads "Unfair Judgment." (Photo by NHK)

However, Tohoku Electric Power countered that the evacuation plan has already been recognized as reasonable by the national government, and even if there are improvements to be made, it is difficult to see them as immediately ineffective. They emphasized that the residents failed to prove the specific risk of a serious accident requiring evacuation, and therefore the request should be dismissed.

The court sided with Tohoku Electric Power, stating, “Since the claim is not based on specific risks, individual issues regarding effectiveness cannot be judged.”

Following this dismissal ruling, Tohoku Electric Power plans to begin maintenance work aiming to restart the accident-affected plant. A Tohoku Electric Power representative told reporters after the trial, “The court understood our company's arguments,” and added, “We will aim for a restart in 2024 while gaining the understanding of local residents.” If the work proceeds as planned, Unit 2 of the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant will become the first nuclear plant in the Great East Japan Earthquake-affected area to be restarted.

The lead plaintiff told the press, “We expected the court to at least rule that the evacuation plan needs correction, but even that was not recognized,” and expressed, “We are very disappointed as we had hoped the judiciary would prevent a repeat of the Fukushima tragedy. We will not give up and will work together with residents, including proving the specific risks of the nuclear plant.”