OSAKA — Dissent between those inside Fukui Prefecture who want two reactors in the town of Oi restarted quickly and those in adjacent prefectures who want to wait for stronger safety measures or are opposed altogether, highlights the dilemma Tokyo faces in obtaining local consent.
Over the past week, opposition to the reactivation of the Oi plant’s reactors 3 and 4 among political leaders in Shiga and Kyoto, as well as in Osaka, has grown stronger, even as support for restarts in Fukui towns that host nuclear power plants has grown as well.
At the heart of the debate is a question with legal and political ramifications for not only Fukui and Kansai, but other regions of the country that host or are near nuclear plants: What does local consent mean?
Continue reading at Debate growing over ‘local’ reactor consent
