Japan Press Weekly

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2017 May 17 - 23 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Amid popular protests, Takahama NPP No.4 reactor is restarted

Ignoring a number of popular protests against nuclear power plant restarts, Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) on May 17 restarted the No.4 reactor at its Takahama NPP in Fukui Prefecture. Furthermore, KEPCO is attempting to reactivate the No.3 nuclear reactor.

The Takahama No.4 reactor is the fourth reactivated reactor in Japan, following Nos 1 and 2 reactors at the Sendai NPP in Kagoshima and the No.3 reactor of the Ikata NPP in Ehime.

In fact, the No.4 reactor of the Takahama NPP restarted in February 2016, but it immediately stopped its operations due to a plumbing problem.

The No.4 reactor operates on “pluthermal” power generation. The reactor uses recycled MOX fuel, which is a mixture of uranium and recycled plutonium. However, how to dispose of and discard spent MOX fuel has yet to be found.

Responding to the forcible reactor reactivation, citizens inside and outside of Fukui gathered in front of the Fukui prefectural government office building and around the Takahama NPP, chanting in chorus, “No to the restart!”, “We have enough electricity without nuclear power generation!”

In front of the prefectural government office, a man in his 70s participated in the protest activity. He has carried on with his protest action in the afternoon on weekdays, and said, “If we increase the rate of popular protests against restarting nuclear reactors from the present 50-60 % to 70-80% of the populace, we can force the Abe administration and Fukui Governor Nishikawa to abandon their push for the reactivation of nuclear reactors.”