The government's safety evaluation of an active geological fault when approving a plan to build a nuclear power plant was not appropriate, the Matsuyama District Court said Friday in a landmark, and first, ruling in a suit filed in 1978.
The judgment came as the court ruled on a lawsuit filed by residents of Ikata, Ehime Prefecture, seeking to cancel the government's approval in 1977 for building a new reactor at Shikoku Electric Power Co.'s Ikata nuclear plant, and thus to have the plant shut down.
Although the court turned down the plaintiffs' request, it said, "It cannot be denied that the evaluation in the safety investigation regarding the active geological fault was wrong, considering the current knowledge that there is an active fault in the area, which the government thought was not there at the time."
Judge Tamon Toyonaga, however, reckoned this does not mean the government approval itself was illegal because of the error in the investigation.