Prosperity of Human Rights

Here came another unequivocal warning from the judicial branch on Japanese modern life dependent on uncontrollable technology on Monday. Fukui District Court sentenced Kansai Electric Power Company to stop the process for resuming two reactors in Takahama Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui Prefecture. It stressed insufficiency of safety standard laid by Nuclear Regulation Authority. The decision literally dismissed the allowance by the authority for resuming its reactors. It appeared to be a sharp opposition between executive branch with specific interest and judicial branch standing on the side of ordinary people.

The sentence was very clear on the reason why the nuclear power plant could not trusted. It raised five examples of nuclear power plants in Japan, experiencing major earthquakes that had exceeded the assumable limit designed by each power company the latest decade. “The standard set by NRA was too loose to be rational and trustful, even if a plant passes it,” told the Chief Justice, Hideaki Higuchi.

Specifically on Takahama, Higuchi raise a list of negative elements, including possible breakdown of cooling capability with loss of external electric supply or vulnerability of used fuel rod pool. He also required fundamental revision in assumption of the greatest quake and necessary measures to acquire it and reinforcement of the pool to obtain efficiency for water supply in emergency.

Higuchi delivered a sentence to halt operation in Oi Nuclear Power Plant last year. Due to the appeal of KEPCO, the sentence was not finalized and the plant is in a situation of waiting for resumption. In the sentence on Takahama, however, the plaintiffs demanded provisional disposition and the court responded to them with their desirable conclusion. KEPCO cannot resume those reactors in Takahama until another court overturn the decision based on the dispute from the defendant.

KEPCO was appalled by the decision. “The game was extended endlessly,” told one officer of the company told Mainichi Shimbun. Chief Cabinet Secretary ignored the sentence, asserting that the safety standard of nuclear power plant in Japan was the strictest in the world and he well not change the course for resumption. Experts reiterated that the standard was scientifically appropriate.

But, the court was on the viewpoint of human rights. The sentence stressed the notion that possible danger of nuclear accident violated personal right. Higuchi required the standard to be based on the fact the Japanese had seen after the accident in Fukushima and dismissed the standard of KEPCO on Takahama to be “expectation on rareness of severe accident.” People are watching closely other decisions on other plants.