The Sapporo District Court said in a ruling that the facility, owned and operated by Hokkaido Electric Power Company, is not safe to operate due to the earthquake and tsunami risk.
A separate request to permanently decommission the plant was rejected by the court, according to court documents. The Tomari facility has been fully offline since 2012.
The ruling comes amid calls by some Japanese politicians to quickly restart its fleet of shuttered nuclear reactors, as the nation faces a power supply crunch this summer and the upcoming winter. The country shut down all of its nuclear power plants following the 2011 Fukushima disaster, and only a handful have restarted under new safety rules.
The court ruled that the Tomari nuclear reactors do not have a safeguard facility against tsunamis and that the utility has not shown adequate safety measures for its spent atomic fuel.
The ruling means that Hokkaido Electric will not be able to immediately restart the facility. The company said that it will file an appeal.
In a speech in London recently, Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida backed the restart of reactors that were shut down following the Fukushima disaster, saying Tokyo will use nuclear power to help reduce its own and other countries’ dependence on Russian energy.
Mr Kishida, facing elections in July and rising energy prices that are squeezing voters’ budgets, said nuclear would be part of the country’s future energy policy.
Reactor Restarts ‘Key To Meeting Emissions Targets’
Before Fukushima, Japan’s nuclear fleet generated about 30% of the country’s electricity. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency that figure was 5.1% in 2020.
In 2021, before Mr Kishida assumed office, Japan adopted a new energy policy that promoted nuclear and renewables as sources of clean energy to achieve the country’s pledge of reaching carbon neutrality in 2050. It kept the target for nuclear power unchanged at 20-22% and said reactor restarts are key to meeting emissions targets.
Nine regional power utilities and a wholesaler, Japan Atomic Power Company (Japco), now have 33 reactors available for commercial use. The companies had 54 reactors operating before Fukushima.
Japan has nine commercial nuclear reactors in operation. They are Genkai-3, Genkai-4, Ikata-3, Ohi-3, Ohi-4, Sendai-1, Sendai-2, Takahama-3 and Takahama-4.
In a March 2021 report, the International Energy Agency called on Japan to speed up reactor restarts as a way to achieve its national climate commitments.
