Japanese court rejects damage claims against utility executives over Fukushima disaster

A Japanese tribunal has ruled erstwhile executives astatine the inferior managing the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi atomic powerfulness works were not accountable for the 2011 meltdown situation and bash not request to wage damages to the company

TOKYO -- A Japanese tribunal ruled erstwhile executives astatine the inferior managing the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi atomic powerfulness works were not accountable for the 2011 meltdown situation and bash not request to wage damages to the company.

The Tokyo High Court ruling connected Friday reversed a little tribunal decision successful 2022 ordering 4 erstwhile executives of the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings to wage 13 trillion yen ($90 billion) to the company, saying they had failed to instrumentality the utmost information precautions contempt knowing the risks of a superior mishap successful a large tsunami.

A magitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami successful March 2011 destroyed cardinal cooling systems astatine the Fukushima Daiichi plant, causing its three reactors to melt down, spreading ample amounts of radiation successful the country and keeping tens of thousands of residents from returning location owed to radioactive contamination and different information concerns.

The Tokyo District Court ruling 3 years agone was the lone ruling that held the erstwhile TEPCO liable for the Fukushima disaster. It upheld the plaintiffs' statement that the executives had neglected to heed experts’ semipermanent tsunami predictions and failed to instrumentality capable tsunami precaution measures soon enough.

The tribunal said, however, the semipermanent tsunani prediction was not considered pressing information requiring contiguous tsunami measures and it was understandable the executives had nary consciousness of urgency from the information they had astatine that time, Kyodo News reported.

Friday’s ruling is simply a large disappointment for Fukushima residents and anti-nuclear activists seeking the managements’ work successful atomic safety.

Plaintiffs and their lawyers criticized the ruling arsenic “unjust” and said they planned to entreaty to the Supreme Court.

Hiroyuki Kawai, a plaintiffs' lawyer, criticized the ruling arsenic “logically flawed," saying it means cipher tin beryllium held liable for immoderate information negligence due to the fact that tsunami and earthquake predictions are inactive intolerable today.

A radical of much than 40 TEPCO shareholders filed the suit successful 2012 demanding 5 erstwhile executives wage the institution 22 trillion yen ($153 billion) successful damages. The magnitude of the 2022 ruling against 4 of the executives was the highest ever ordered successful a lawsuit.

Japan's top court successful March recovered 2 erstwhile TEPCO executives not blameworthy of negligence implicit the Fukushima meltdowns, saying a tsunami of the magnitude that deed the works was unforeseeable. It was the lone transgression proceedings related to the atomic mishap and the lone transgression lawsuit related to the atomic accident.

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