2020 March 20 « nuclear-news

Nagasaki citizen’s group prays for survivors of Fukushima nuclear disaster

jmm Citizen’s group members form a human chain in front of the hypocenter cenotaph during an event to pray for the restoration of Fukushima, hit by the 2011 meltdowns of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, at the Hypocenter Park in the city of Nagasaki, on March 11, 2020

March 13, 2020

NAGASAKI — A citizen’s group in this southwestern Japan city destroyed by the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing held an event to pray for no more nuclear tragedies on March 11, the day of the meltdowns at the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

A total of 15 participants, including atomic bomb survivors and high school students, gathered at the Nagasaki Hypocenter Park and offered a silent prayer at 2:46 p.m., the exact time the Great East Japan Earthquake struck, and formed a human chain in front of the hypocenter cenotaph.

The group was organized in 2013 and has interacted with people in Fukushima, which still struggles to recover from the nuclear disaster, to offer support from an area that has experienced the devastating destruction of nuclear weapons. Atomic bomb survivors and second-generation members have visited Fukushima and invited locals to visit Nagasaki for a lecture event.

Hiroko Sakaguchi, 70, a second-generation atomic bomb survivor, gave a speech at the March 11 event. “Many people still cannot return to their hometowns due to the nuclear accident. Even if buildings are rebuilt, that doesn’t mean real restoration. The disaster is still continuing there,” she said.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200312/p2a/00m/0na/020000c

March 20, 2020 Posted by dunrenard | Fukushima 2020 | Fukushima Victims, Nagasaki solidarity | Leave a comment

Sendai High Court orders Tepco to pay more to Fukushima evacuees

n-tepco-a-20200314-870x567 Plaintiffs and lawyers who filed a lawsuit seeking damages for having to evacuate after meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant hold up banners Thursday in front of the Sendai High Court.

March13, 2020

SENDAI – A high court on Thursday ordered the operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant to pay ¥730 million in damages to evacuees from the 2011 tsunami-triggered meltdown, up ¥120 million from a lower court ruling.

In their appeal at the Sendai High Court, 216 plaintiffs, most of whom are evacuees from areas within 30 kilometers of the plant, maintained their claim for a total of ¥1.88 billion in compensation from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.

The latest ruling is the first to be handed down by a high court among 30 similar lawsuits filed nationwide by evacuees and victims seeking damages, either from the power company alone or both the utility and the state.

“Tepco knew around April 2008 that there was the possibility of a tsunami that could be high enough to reach the site of the Fukushima No. 1 power plant and might cause the failure of the safety functions intended to halt the nuclear reactor,” presiding Judge Hisaki Kobayashi said when handing down the ruling.

“The accident occurred while countermeasure construction had been postponed. From the victims’ point of view, this is the thing that Tepco should have the greatest amount of regret over,” he said. “Tepco’s lack of proper preparation is extremely regrettable and should be an important factor in calculating the amount of compensation.”

Also taking into account pain caused to the plaintiffs by the loss of their neighborhoods and hardships during evacuation, the court ordered additional compensation of ¥1 million each for evacuees mostly from areas once designated as restricted residence zones and ¥500,000 for those from former emergency evacuation preparation zones.

In the previous ruling at the Iwaki branch of the Fukushima District Court in March 2018, 213 out of 216 plaintiffs were awarded compensation of between ¥700,000 and ¥1.5 million per person, depending on where the victims were living.

Both the utility and the plaintiffs had appealed to the high court.

“It is a fair ruling,” said Tokuo Hayakawa, who leads the plaintiffs. “We cannot go back to our daily lives even if the evacuation orders are lifted.”

Tepco said in a release that it was considering how to respond to the latest ruling.

The value sought in the lawsuit had been lowered by the plaintiffs from ¥13.3 billion to avoid the possibility of a prolonged trial that could have raised court costs and may have undermined the amount of money they could receive at its conclusion.

The plaintiffs argued that the operator could have foreseen the accident caused by the tsunami based on the government’s 2002 long-term assessment of major quakes, and demanded compensation for their “loss of a hometown” in addition to the amount already paid by the power company.

Tepco maintains that it could not have predicted the tsunami, and has claimed that the damages have already been paid to evacuees in accordance with government guidelines on compensation.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/03/13/national/crime-legal/sendai-court-ups-tepco-payouts-fukushima-evacuees/?fbclid=IwAR3fRDL1wZA1ja0AHXkBFkYkaxiLujaP30ZlQhDWb1gl3Q5FDcVl7SYk58w#.XmunEXJCeUl

March 20, 2020 Posted by dunrenard | Fukushima 2020 | Compensation, Court Decision, Fukushima Evacuees | Leave a comment