A Japanese court has rejected a petition to close down the country's only two operating nuclear reactors.

It is the country's first legal ruling on atomic power since the Fukushima disaster a little over two years ago.

Anti-nuclear advocates had sought to have the reactors at Kansai Electric Power's Ohi plant in western Japan shut down because seismologists suspect parts of the station sit above an active faultline.

This would be against Japanese law on nuclear siting.

The Fukushima disaster was the worst nuclear accident in the world in a quarter century.

It prompted the gradual shutdown of all Japan's nuclear reactors until there were none left operating in May 2012.

This left the country without atomic power for the first time since 1970.

Japan has faced a soaring fuel bill as power companies ramped up purchases of gas, oil and coal.

The purchases are to make up for atomic power, which accounted for 30% of the country's electricity supply before the disaster.

A government decision last June to restart the Ohi reactors galvanised the country's previously dormant anti-nuclear movement.

It sparked the biggest demonstrations in decades.

Media surveys have shown a majority of Japanese want to abandon atomic energy by 2030, if not sooner.

The country's new nuclear regulator is still investigating whether the suspected fault under the station is active.