Fukushima survivors to sue Japan government

At least 350 residents are to file a case with Fukushima District Court on March 11, the second anniversary of the disaster, the lawyers said, describing it as the largest class-action on the issue against the state.

The plaintiffs, who are also scheduled to sue plant operator Tokyo Electric Power, plan to seek 50,000 yen (US$535) in compensation for every month they have been displaced by the disaster.

They also intend to ask the court to issue an order forcing both the government and TEPCO to reduce radiation levels in the area to those of before the accident.

The world's worst nuclear crisis in a generation began when a huge tsunami, sparked by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, crashed into the Fukushima power station and swamped cooling systems.

Reactors went into meltdown, spewing radiation over a wide area and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people.

“The government promoted nuclear power as a national policy and has been closely involved with it,” lawyer Izutaro Managi told AFP.

“Being fully aware of the danger of losing power due to a tsunami, the government neglected its duty of preventing such an event,” he said. “This is a suit to recover a Fukushima with neither radiation nor nuclear power.”

Several other similar class-action suits will be also filed separately on March 11 with the Tokyo District Court, against both the government and TEPCO, other lawyers said.

Experts said they brought the wrecked units under control in December 2011. But melted fuel remains inside their cores and the full decommissioning and cleaning-up is expected to take decades.

SHARE CLOSE
Blogger		Google+
Live Journal		Plurk
Stumble Upon

Tweet

	PREVIOUS ARTICLE
	Malaysia revises plan to build Borneo dams: official

NEXT ARTICLE
Famine hit N. Korea's rice basket in 2012: report

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email

Submit