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2011 November 9 - 15 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

612 people file lawsuit for Tomari N-plant to be scrapped

Over 600 citizens on November 11 filed a lawsuit with the Sapporo District Court demanding that the Tomari nuclear power plant of the Hokkaido Electric Power Company (HEPCO) be decommissioned.

The 612 people are members of an association calling for the Tomari NPP to be decommissioned.

At a rally held earlier in the day, the head of the lawyers’ bench explained that the suit calls for the decommissioning of the reactors because the company’s account regarding the safety of the plant’s location has turned out to be misleading and false. He called for increasing the grassroots movement along with supporting the court struggle to get the national nuclear energy policy changed.

Ono Yugo, the association’s co-representative and professor emeritus at Hokkaido University, pointed out that Japan built N-reactors at very dangerous locations, while many N-reactors in other countries are built in locations that are relatively safe from the danger of earthquakes. He added that the Tomari N-plant is surrounded by many active faults.