By JIN HIRAKAWA/ Staff Writer
May 24, 2023 at 18:48 JST
The Onagawa nuclear power plant operated by Tohoku Electric Power Co. (Tatsuya Shimada)
SENDAI--The Sendai District Court on May 24 rejected residents’ request for an injunction to keep a reactor offline at the Onagawa nuclear power plant over what they said was a flawed evacuation plan.
The court essentially said that any argument about the soundness of the evacuation plan was irrelevant because the residents had failed to prove that a serious accident requiring an evacuation could occur at the nuclear plant straddling Onagawa and Ishinomaki city.
The ruling sided with the plant’s operator, Tohoku Electric Power Co., which plans to restart the No. 2 reactor there in February 2024.
The Onagawa nuclear power plant, which has three reactors, was damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent 13-meter-high tsunami in March 2011.
After that disaster caused the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, stricter safety standards were imposed at the nation’s nuclear plants, including having effective evacuation plans in place for possible serious accidents.
The 17 residents, who live within 5 to 30 kilometers of the Onagawa plant, argued that the evacuation plan currently in place there would fail to protect them.
They said that if they fled the area in cars and buses, as recommended in the evacuation plan, they could get stuck in traffic congestion formed around locations where people undergo screening for radioactive contamination.
Such delays would put them at a greater risk of being exposed to radiation, the plaintiffs said.
The evacuation plan was developed by seven municipalities in the area and the Miyagi prefectural government. The central government approved the plan in June 2020.
Tohoku Electric said in court that the evacuation plan might not be perfect, but it didn’t mean it was totally ineffective.
However, that didn’t really matter in the judgment.
Tohoku Electric also argued that the plaintiffs had not highlighted or proved that the nuclear plant was at risk of a serious accident that would require an evacuation.
The company asked the court to dismiss the requested injunction, regardless of whether the evacuation plan was effective.
The court agreed with Tohoku Electric.
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