Court upholds injunction to halt restart of Takahama reactors

Hey that's great news! Citizens matter!

A Kansai Electric spokesman said the losses from the shutdown of the two Takahama reactors amounted to 10 billion yen >>($96 million) per month

That's your shareholders / board managers 's issue, the loss of a private corporation should never prevail over the public safety.

A Kansai Electric spokesman said the losses from the shutdown of the two Takahama reactors amounted to 10 billion yen ($96 million) per month

nuclear power is a money loser. Storing all its waste for thousands of years is never costed for either, so add to that bottom line for over a thousand generations while you're at it as well. What an absolute crime to think this was a good idea.

Time to abandon it and get building on renewables on a island chalk a block full of geothermal power that would make a perfect replacement, let alone all the solar and pumped storage possibilities.

Japan wouldn't have to be dependent on others for energy or imports or making plutonium for arms sales either

Japanese lower courts sometimes hand down contentious verdicts that are then overturned by higher courts, where judges tend to be more attuned to political implications, judicial experts say.

True enough. It is almost like a convention, perhaps to elicit some initial hope or even to prolong the process. If High Courts fail to bring things back into line the Supreme Court can usually be relied on to make a decision that upholds a status quo based on the power dynamic.

@john - next to the ocean provides a good source of water for cooling, as long as they build structures to prevent surge and subsequent draining of the water.

@john

the water cooling requirements are quite extensive for a reactor to function. Also to store the nuclear waste created takes a lot of water to store the spent rods. Water chemically keeps the radioactive materials more stable as well.

Chernobyl had a 14 km long cooling lake, so depending on the size of a facility, access to a large body of water is not trivial. The waste heat impact on the local environment can also lead to dead zones for wildlife and needs to be remote enough to not impact fisheries or cities.

Japan lacking a lot of large plateaus as an island nation is all about the alluvial plains too, so that would additionally reduce the site choices for them as well.

So how has Japan made up the 33% loss of energy production? Is the energy shortages? Did they start burning more oil/coal to make up the difference? Can someone point me to that kind of info?

One question, and I've had it since I responded to Fukushima in 2011; why did Japan allow nuclear reactors to be built next to the ocean? Being one of the most seismically active countries in the world it doesn't make sense to me.

One if the warmest places I've ever been to was on the Fukui coast one summer - the temperature set a record of around 40℃!

Larry, Japan has been burning a lot more fossil fuel. This has caused pollution to go out of control in the major Japanese cities. This will cause tens of thousands of Japanese to die early deaths from pollution. Most people know nothing about pollution and radiation. I liked the poster who wrote "no radiation is good radiation. I blame it on a lack of proper education in today's schools.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35568249

Burning more fossil fuels equals more deaths. It equals more sickness and a degradation of our lives pleasure.

Kansai Electric said it would never restart the Takahama plants without the support of the people, smiling at them as they made the vow. Then when it was clear they did not have the support they vowed they would not restart the reactors without, they said that legally the support was not necessary and pushed for them to get back online. Now we know full-well what it's about:

"A Kansai Electric spokesman said the losses from the shutdown of the two Takahama reactors amounted to 10 billion yen ($96 million) per month"

Tough. How much will Fukushima have cost by the time it is finally decommissioned? I'm guessing Kansai doesn't want to wait the minimum fifty years it's going to take to answer that problem.

Short story. I gove a clue with less paim for the above dilemma. Pay the nearby residents to shut their mouth or yakuza will. Problem solved.

Bad for the economy.

Shut them down because some people are afraid of radiation below anything that ever hurt anyone. Yeah...that makes sense! Right!!! Run from the radiation bogeyman...