"Japan Court Rules Against Nuclear Restart in Rare Ruling"

"A Japanese court ruled against allowing the restart of a nuclear power plant west of Tokyo on Wednesday, its operator said, a rare case in which anti-nuclear plaintiffs have successfully won a ruling to shut down reactors.

The court in Fukui prefecture ruled against allowing Kansai Electric Power Co (9503.T) to restart reactors No. 3 and 4 at its Ohi nuclear plant, the utility said in a statement, adding it would appeal against the decision.

Ohi, like all of Japan's nuclear plants, has been idled for safety checks in the wake of the 2011 disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co's (9501.T) Fukushima Daiichi plant pending safety checks."

Aaron Sheldrick, Osamu Tsukimori, and Mari Saito report for Reuters May 21, 2014.