Japan court approves restart of reactors

Lawyers hold banners after the Kagoshima District Court rejected a lawsuit to halt the restart of Kyushu Electric Power's Sendai nuclear power plant, in front of the court in Kagoshima, southern Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo April 22, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

KAGOSHIMA, Japan - A Japanese court has rejected a legal bid to block the reopening of the Sendai nuclear power station on safety grounds, removing one of the last big hurdles to switching reactors back on after the 2011 Fukushima crisis paralysed the industry.

Wednesday's ruling by the Kagoshima District Court is a boost for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who wants to reboot nuclear power to help cut reliance on expensive fossil fuel imports.

It is also a vote of confidence for a revamped regulator and suggests another court ruling last week to prevent the operation of two reactors west of Tokyo may have been an aberration for Japan's conservative judiciary.

The Sendai plant is due to be the first to reopen since all of Japan's nuclear power plants were shuttered in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. Anti-nuclear activists have stepped up petitioning the courts in a bid to block restarts as a majority of the public remains opposed to atomic power.

The ruling showed how some parts of Japan were likely to be more open to the return of nuclear, said Michael Jones, senior analyst at consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

"Certain areas that have a lot more local support for nuclear and much more local reliance on nuclear are going to be much easier to get restarts up and running," he said.

The Sendai ruling said that based on the latest scientific knowledge the court found nothing wrong in the regulations set by the Nuclear Regulation Authority and that evacuation plans were also reasonable.

The Sendai reactors, operated by Kyushu Electric Power, are "very close" to getting final regulatory approval to being operations, an official from Japan's nuclear regulator said earlier this month.

The reactors, on the coast of Kagoshima prefecture in southwestern Japan, could begin starting up as early as June. A court order stopping the move would have risked tying up the industry in legal battles for months or years.