Japan Press Weekly

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2014 February 12 - 18 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Hakodate City in court suit seeks to suspend NPP construction

Hokkaido’s Hakodate City on February 12 announced that it will file a lawsuit against the state and the Electric Power Development Co. (J-Power), seeking a halt to the ongoing construction of a new nuclear power plant. This is the first lawsuit of its kind filed by a local government.

J-Power is building the Oma NPP in Oma Town, Aomori Prefecture, which is on the opposite side of the Tsuruga Strait from Hakodate. The center of the city is 23 km away from the plant site and the closest distance from the city to the site is only 18 km.

On the same day, Hakodate Mayor Kudo Toshiki held a news conference at the city office building. While the new safety standards for NPPs require local governments located within a 30 km radius from an NPP to draw up an emergency evacuation plan. J-Power has never held a meeting to provide necessary information to the city or to obtain the city’s consent for the construction, he pointed out.

Hakodate City will file the lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court as soon as obtaining an approval to do so from the city assembly that is to be convened on February 27.

Japanese Communist Party member of the city assembly Ichinohe Yutaka expressed his full support to the city for its responsible action to maintain the safety of its citizens.