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Court case will unveil ‘the hidden truths’ of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown

Trial in Japan will delve into ‘the hidden truths’ of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, LA Times, Jake Adelstein, 29 Feb 16, Three former executives of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. were indicted Monday on charges of failing to take measures to prevent the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011, the Tokyo prosecutor’s office announced.

The accident resulted in a triple meltdown that displaced more than 100,000 people and raised alarms about nuclear energy around the world. The indictment says it also caused deaths and injuries.

The trial will center on whether key Tokyo Electric Power Co. executives can be held criminally responsible for what the Japanese parliament’s Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission called “a man-made disaster.”

Tsunehisa Katsumata, 75, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco,  at the time of the accident, and two former vice presidents — Sakae Muto, 65, and Ichiro Takekuro, 69 — were indicted on charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury. A court-approved lawyer will act as the prosecutor in the trial.

The prosecutors office’s announcement noted that the six-reactor plant, located on the Pacific coast, was disabled after tidal waves triggered by the massive earthquake on March 11, 2011, flooded power supply facilities, which were unprotected, and crippled reactor cooling systems.

The Nos. 1 to 3 reactors suffered fuel meltdowns, while hydrogen explosions damaged others.

The indictment blames the three former executives for injuries to more than 10 people from hydrogen explosions at the plant, as well as the deaths of 44 patients forced to evacuate from a nearby hospital.

The indictment does not hold Tepco executives responsible for the deaths of two workers who had rushed to the turbine room of the No. 4 reactor after the earthquake. Autopsies suggested they were killed by the impact of the tsunami.

All of the former executives will probably plead not guilty, Japanese media reported……

The Tepco prosecution has been a long time coming. Last July, the Tokyo Prosecutorial Review Board No. 5 decided to mandate that the three be charged with professional negligence for their handling of the disaster, overturning a 2013 decision by prosecutors not to indict them.

“This trial will take quite a long time but I feel that ultimately they will be found guilty,” lawyer Hiroyuki Kawai, who was instrumental in seeing that Tepco officials faced prosecution, said in an email. “The hidden truths of what really caused the Fukushima nuclear accident keep coming to light, one after another.”……..

Kawai said the Fukushima disaster was a clear demonstration that Japan, which is located in the so-called Ring of Fire, with frequent seismic activity, was unsafe for nuclear power……..http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-tepco-fukushima-20160229-story.html

March 4, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, Legal