High court upholds approval for nuclear units in southwest Japan

A Japanese high court on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling rejecting a call by residents to invalidate the approval given for the operation of two nuclear reactors in Kagoshima Prefecture in southwestern Japan.The Fukuoka High Court ruling on the Nos. 1 and 2 units at Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Sendai nuclear power plant was the first by a high court on the legitimacy of the approval under the new safety standards introduced in the wake of the nuclear crisis in Fukushima in 2011.In handing down the ruling, Presiding Judge Norihiro Matsuda said the Nuclear Regulation Authority's guideli…READ FULL ARTICLE