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Japanese Judge Orders Reactor Shut-Down

In response to a lawsuit by residents who feared it could leak dangerous radiation during a powerful earthquake, the Kanazawa District Court in northwestern Japan ordered the shutdown of the country?s second-largest nuclear reactor. Judge Kenichi Ido ruled that the reactor, operated by Hokuriku Electric Power Co., could expose residents to radioactivity should a powerful earthquake occur.

In 2004, five workers were killed when a corroded pipe at a reactor in western Japan ruptured and sprayed them with boiling water and steam in the country`s worst nuclear plant accident to date. No radiation escaped from that reactor, which has since resumed operations. Earlier this week, fire broke out at a nuclear plant`s waste incinerator in western Japan, injuring two workers. Fortunately, disaster was averted since no radiation leaked.

Resource-poor Japan is heavily dependent on its nuclear program, but the public has been increasingly wary of reactor safety due to the above-mentioned accidents. The Kyodo News Agency reported that the 135 plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in May 2005 claiming they would be in constant danger because the reactor is near a fault line that a government committee says a quake with a magnitude of 7.6 could strike.