nuclear-news

The first case was launched in December 2012 by a group of residents evacuated from Futaba, located next to the plant.
Since then thousands of people, including 900 more so far in 2015, have filed new lawsuits or joined existing ones.

The plaintiffs are dissatisfied with the government’s financial compensation scheme, launched after an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, triggered the nuclear accident.

Under the compensation scheme, TEPCO has been paying compensation to people who had to abandon their homes and to business owners in the affected region for the losses suffered because of the accident.

However, the plaintiffs claim the payments are insufficient and are asking for TEPCO to pay an additional indemnity until radiation levels around the plant return to the levels of prior to the accident.

They are also claiming financial compensation for the destruction of their communities. Most are also seeking compensation under Japan’s rehabilitation law. Fukushima is the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986, forced the evacuation of thousands of people from the area and seriously affected agriculture, fisheries and local livestock.