Court orders shutdown of Japan's second-largest nuclear reactor

Tokyo - A district court on Friday ordered the first shutdown of a nuclear reactor in Japan, saying the country's second-largest reactor has a high risk of causing accidents and leaking radiation if an earthquake strikes, media reports said.
The court in Kanazawa said the Hokuriku Electric Power Co, the operator of the Shika nuclear power plant north of Tokyo, had followed 20-year-old building guidelines for earthquake resistance for its number 2 reactor at the site, which began operations in May.
Hokuriku said it would appeal the decision and will continue running the 1,358-megawatt reactor in Ishikawa prefecture.
A group of 135 citizens demanded the shutdown in a lawsuit filed in May, citing safety concerns because the reactor sits in an earthquake-prone region near the Ochigata fault in one of the world's most quake-prone countries.
Hokuriku said Japan's 55th nuclear reactor, construction on which began in 1999, was safe and was essential to secure a stable supply of electricity for Japan.

IOL: SA to oppose Bush's suggested uranium ban

He noted that as far back as February 2004 US President George Bush had effectively said that countries could not be trusted with uranium enrichment programmes "because if you have technology to enrich, you can use it for weapons, or for power".Bush had been speaking in the context of Iran wanting to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.The US president had proposed that from that date onwards no country that was not enriching uranium at that moment should be allowed to enrich in future."We, in South Africa, totally reject this approach, because if concerns are there for another country why should all of us in the developing world - because it hits all of us - not be allowed to enrich?" Minty asked.Bush's proposal would have meant that countries like India, Pakistan and Israel would have been able to continue to enrich uranium without any control, while developing countries would be barred from doing so.
'We must look at market prices and global supply'Noting that the South African cabinet had decided to fund the country's own pebble bed reactor, Minty said: "If we develop it, we may be interested in enriching uranium, because we have the technology, we have the uranium, we must look at market prices and global supply and see if we need to (enrich) ... we are not accepting this."Minty emphasised that under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, member states had the inalienable right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.But there was great pressure to stop countries from embarking on uranium enrichment programmes, he said.