Shareholders of eight regional utilities voted down all anti-nuclear proposals on June 26, including those calling for the suspension or decommissioning of reactors or withdrawal from the fuel recycling program.
Shareholders of eight regional utilities voted down all anti-nuclear proposals on June 26, including those calling for the suspension or decommissioning of reactors or withdrawal from the fuel recycling program.
Nine regional utilities that operate nuclear plants held shareholders’ meetings on June 26.
The 72 proposals, submitted by anti-nuclear shareholders, won support from a number of prefectural and municipal governments that own shares in the electric power companies.
But they were rejected by other shareholders, such as banks and businesses dealing with the utilities. The companies’ managements were opposed to the proposals.
Support from at least two-thirds of shareholders is required for a proposal to be adopted.
At the shareholders’ meeting of Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the Fukushima prefectural government for the first time supported a proposal calling for the decommissioning of the nearby Fukushima No. 2 plant.
Tohoku Electric Power Co. operates the Higashidori nuclear plant in Aomori Prefecture and the Onagawa nuclear plant in Miyagi Prefecture.
At the company’s meeting of shareholders, the Aomori city government and the Misato town government in Miyagi Prefecture backed a proposal calling for the decommissioning of these plants.
The Osaka city government, the top shareholder of Kansai Electric Power Co., demanded that the company abolish nuclear reactors as soon as possible.
The Tokyo metropolitan government, which owns shares in TEPCO, called for enhanced transparency in management.
No anti-nuclear proposal was submitted at Hokuriku Electric Power Co.’s shareholders’ meeting.
Executives of the nine utilities told shareholders they plan to restart idle reactors as soon as possible.
Kansai Electric, Hokkaido Electric Power Co., Shikoku Electric Power Co. and Kyushu Electric Power Co. plan to apply to the Nuclear Regulation Authority for restarting 12 reactors soon after new safety standards take effect on July 8.
The nation’s 50 nuclear reactors were taken offline after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011. Only two of them have been brought back online.