The Sendai High Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court decision and rejected demands by a group of citizens that government approval be revoked for the country's only commercial uranium enrichment plant.
The three-judge panel, led by Judge Hiroshi Ohashi, dismissed the appeal filed by 77 residents against the March 2002 district court decision.
The high court had widened qualifications for plaintiffs in the suit to people living within 20 km of the uranium enrichment plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture.