Japan suspends Shikoku Electric's Ikata-3 operations

The power station, it said, was built on the epicentre of a likely earthquake.

Enerdata reported that the Hiroshima High Court (Japan) has overruled the Hiroshima district court's decision, which allowed Shikoku Electric's Ikata-3 nuclear reactor to restart operations after maintenance and periodic inspections in January 2018, and issued an injunction to suspend the reactor's operations. The High Court ruled in favour of the plaintiffs, arguing that the operating company Shikoku Electric Power (SEP) has underestimated the fact that the power station is built on the epicentre of a possible earthquake right next to the underwater fault of Nankai (Japan).

SEP labelled the decision as unacceptable and announced its intention to appeal, arguing that this decision might cost up to JPY35bn per month (US$310m per month). The reactor is currently offline for maintenance and periodic inspections and the injunction is effective until the end of September 2018.

The 846 MW reactor, commissioned in 1994, was stopped for more than five years in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011. It restarted operations in September 2016.

This article was originally published by Enerdata.