A Japanese court on Wednesday rejected a request to halt the operation of a nuclear reactor run by Shikoku Electric Power Co. in western Japan, according to Kyodo news.

In the lawsuit at the Hiroshima District Court, plaintiffs, including survivors of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings, claimed there is a high likelihood of a serious accident at the Ikata plant's No. 3 reactor if the area is struck by an earthquake or volcanic eruption.

The reactor, located on a narrow peninsula in Ehime Prefecture, was restarted in 2016 after clearing Nuclear Regulation Authority safety screenings based on stricter standards introduced following the massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster in Fukushima Prefecture that caused a major nuclear accident.

The number of plaintiffs in the lawsuit, first filed in 2016, totaled 337, including 38 survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The plaintiffs argued the utility's risk assessment in the event of a Nankai Trough megaquake in the Pacific and a violent eruption of Mt. Aso in southwestern Japan is insufficient.

Shikoku Electric said its evaluation is based on the largest earthquake studied by the government and even takes larger jolts into consideration. It said a massive volcanic eruption is very unlikely.