Residents have appealed a court decision last month dismissing calls to prevent two reactors from being restarted at the Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture.

The appeal, filed Wednesday with the Fukuoka High Court's Miyazaki branch, disputes the Kagoshima District Court's rejection of a local call for an injunction on restarting reactor Nos. 1 and 2 at the plant, which is run by Kyushu Electric Power Co. in Satsumasendai.

While the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing to restart reactors taken offline after the 2011 triple core meltdown in Fukushima, many in the country remain opposed because of lingering safety concerns about utilities' ability to control atomic power.

On April 22, the district court ruled that there were no "irrationalities" in the new safety standards adopted after the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, and that, having cleared those standards, the Sendai plant is fit for operation.

At a news conference, lawyers representing the residents said many parts of the district court's decision were logically unsound and that the plaintiffs are hoping for a new ruling before the reactors come back online.

Kyushu Electric hopes to have the Sendai plant, commissioned in 1984, back in operation by summer.