CNIC Statement on the court ruling suspending operation of Ikata Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) Unit 3
Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center
13 December 2017
On December 13 the Hiroshima High Court ordered a temporary injunction suspending operations at Shikoku Electric Power Company’s Ikata NPP Unit 3. Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center (CNIC) welcomes this judgment and expresses our respect for the plaintiffs and lawyers who fought hard to prove that Ikata NPP is dangerous, as well as all the citizens of Hiroshima who have supported them.
People residing within about a 100 km radius of the Ikata NPP (from Hiroshima City and Matsuyama City), fearing that Hiroshima would again be irradiated, filed a case in the Hiroshima District Court for an injunction to shut down the Ikata NPP, claiming that it posed concrete dangers to them and questioning whether it complied with the new safety regulations. However the District Court dismissed the case, so the plaintiffs appealed to the higher court.
The High Court ruling states that the period of suspension of operations is until 30 September 2018. It questions the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s (NRA) decision that the risks associated with volcanic eruptions do not breach the new regulations. On the other hand, the ruling recognizes the legitimacy of the new regulations and the decision by the NRA that the Ikata NPP complies with the regulations. Moreover, this injunction has a time limit because there were restrictions on the procedure for examination of evidence so this court would leave the final judgment on this matter to the Hiroshima District Court, where the original case is currently pending.
This must be very difficult for citizens to understand. If, as the judgment states, there is in fact, a risk to life and limb posed by the Ikata NPP, then it is very clear that this danger does not have a time limit.
CNIC stands with the people of Hiroshima, Kyushu and Shikoku in spreading, far and wide, the facts about the dangers of Ikata and we hope that the original case, now in the Hiroshima District Court, will result in a clearer ruling than this one.
