The Sendai High Court upheld on Wednesday a lower court ruling rejecting a request to halt the No. 2 reactor at Tohoku Electric Power's Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture.

On Oct. 29, the Onagawa No. 2 reactor was restarted for the first time in 13 years, becoming the first boiling water reactor to be put back online since a triple meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings' Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant triggered by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. The reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant are also boiling water reactors.

Sixteen people living within 30 kilometers of the Onagawa plant filed the lawsuit against Tohoku Electric in May 2021, claiming that an evacuation plan established for a nuclear accident at the plant's No. 2 reactor was not effective.