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Japanese court rejects

Nuclear lawsuit

TOKYO: A Japanese court rejected a lawsuit on Wednesday to permanently close down an experimental plutonium reactor that has been idle since a 1995 accident.

The suit, filed by residents living around the plant in 1985, argued that the permit for the reactor was faulty and that the plant was prone to potentially disastrous accidents.

The Fukui District court turned down the 34 plaintiffs on all counts, said court official Yumiko Saito.

The "Monju" reactor, in Tsuruga on the Sea of Japan coast 350 kilometers (220 miles) west of Tokyo, has been shut down since December 8, 1995, when more than a ton of volatile liquid sodium leaked from the secondary cooling system.

The plant Ñ known as a fast-breader reactor Ñ had been the centre piece of Japan's ambitions to rapidly expand its reliance on nuclear energy. Breeder reactors use plutonium fuel instead of conventional uranium and produce more plutonium that can then be reused as fuel.

The plant has been targeted by antinuclear activists and others who feel the technology is particularly unsafe. Supporters of the plaintiffs said an appeal was planned.

"It's all political. We're just really disappointed," said Aileen Mioko Smith, of the Green Action environmentalist group. "A fast breeder reactor technologically is between a bomb and a conventional reactor Ñ in other words, it can explode."

Many other nations have abandoned similar projects because of the high costs and dangers associated with handling plutonium, which is highly radioactive and can be used to make nuclear weapons.ÑAP