A Japanese court rejected a request to suspend two nuclear reactors operated by Kyushu Electric Power Co. on Friday, a day after the country marked the 10th anniversary of the massive earthquake and tsunami that triggered the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.

Plaintiffs including local residents had demanded that the utility halt operation of the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at the Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture, southwestern Japan, amid safety concerns.

Plaintiffs also lost in a separate case seeking to have the government's approval of operating the Genkai plant reactors revoked. Both rulings were handed down by the Saga District Court.

Friday's ruling was closely watched following a similar case last year. The Osaka District Court in December revoked the government's approval of operating the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors of Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture.

The landmark ruling was the first case for a Japanese court to withdraw government approval granted to a utility to operate a nuclear power plant under the safety standards introduced in 2013 following the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in March 2011.

The most contentious point in the Saga cases was whether the Nuclear Regulation Authority and the utility had underestimated the so-called standard ground motion, or maximum shaking that a reactor could withstand during a possible quake, a key factor in its quake-resistance design.

In the run-up to Friday's ruling, the Saga District Court and the Fukuoka High Court have both rejected an injunction to halt the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at the Genkai plant.

In 2009, the No. 3 unit became the first commercial reactor in Japan to use plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel, commonly known as MOX fuel, which is created by plutonium and uranium extracted from reprocessing spent reactor fuel -- a key component of the resource-poor country's long-standing nuclear fuel recycling policy.

After going offline like other nuclear reactors nationwide in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, the Genkai Nos. 3 and 4 reactors resumed operation in 2018.

Kyushu Electric, meanwhile, has decided to decommission the aging Nos. 1 and 2 reactors at the power station at the northwestern tip of the southwestern main island of Kyushu.

==Kyodo

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