High court: government's approval of nuclear reactor Monju invalid

In a landmark decision, the Nagoya High Court on January 27 upheld residents' demands for a halt to the operation of the fast-breeder nuclear reactor Monju, saying that the government's pre-construction safety assessments on the reactor Monju was invalid. This is the first judgment in favor of residents in Japan's lawsuits calling for a drastic change in nuclear power reactor policy.

The ruling rejected a lower court decision of March 2000, which had turned down the suit filed by residents near the fast-breeder nuclear reactor Monju in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture. The reactor has been run by the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute.

Referring to the 1995 incident at the reactor plant in which sodium leakage occurred and a fire broke out, the judge stated: (1) the government's safety assessments were defective on the thickness of the steel sheet laid between sodium and its concrete floor. Its design bears a serious flaw in that the leakage might have completely disabled the secondary cooling system; (2) the assessment on ruptured pipe was defective, with the possibility of causing a melt-down of its reactor core following an abnormal increase in the generating power; (3) the criteria for designing the reactor's anti-earthquake measures were outdated and insufficient.

Commenting on the ruling, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi told the press as follows:

The government must accept the decision without appealing to the Supreme Court. In the September 2002 "5-point urgent proposal" on nuclear reactors, the JCP demanded that the government carry out full scale inspections of all nuclear facilities in Japan and give up its nuclear fuel recycling policy, criticizing the government for its failed safety measures.

Sato Masao, JCP member of the Fukui Prefectural Assembly and one of the plaintiffs said: "The JCP, as the only party in the prefectural assembly calling for a halt to the Monju operation, will make further efforts together with residents to stop the repairing and operation of Monju."

Tsubota Kanaya, a representative of the Reinan association calling for the safety of nuclear reactors, stressed that they filed the suit warning that Japan is the only country still operating a fast-breeder reactor. (end)