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Japan court orders compensation for Fukushima nuclear crisis evacuees
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IANS | 20 Feb, 2019
A court in Japan on Wednesday ordered the government and the operator of
the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to pay damages to those
affected by the disaster in 2011.
The Yokohama District Court
ruled that nearly 420 million yen (around $3.8 million) be paid in
compensation by the central government and the Tokyo Electric Power
Company (TEPCO) to 152 people evacuated following the massive nuclear
accident triggered by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011,
public broadcaster NHK reported.
The court's verdict was the
fifth to find the government liable in one of approximately 30 similar
lawsuits filed throughout the country by those displaced and affected by
the disaster.
A total of 175 people from 60 households -
including those evacuated to Kanagawa prefecture from Fukushima, whose
capital is Yokohama, located south of Tokyo - had demanded a total of
about 5.4 billion yen in damages for loss of livelihood and
psychological suffering due to the "loss of their hometown".
Presiding
Judge Ken Nakadaira said the disaster could have been prevented if the
state had acted in 2009 on an expert's projection that a massive tsunami
similar to the one in the ninth century could strike the area again,
Kyodo News reported.
The judge added that it was possible before
the end of 2010 to implement steps such as emergency power generators to
prevent core reactor damage and hydrogen explosions that led to massive
radioactive leaks, calling it a "mistake and failure".
He also said it was illegal that the state didn't properly exercise its regulatory authority over TEPCO.
It was the sixth lawsuit filed against the state and TEPCO by those affected by the Fukushima disaster, NHK said.
The
verdict came weeks before the eighth anniversary of the Fukushima
nuclear disaster - the worst since Chernobyl in 1986 - which displaced
thousands of people and affected local businesses when the plant spewed
radioactive materials causing multiple meltdowns and hydrogen blasts.
After
the 2011 accident, Japanese authorities set up obligatory evacuation
zones and areas of restricted access around the Fukushima Daiichi plant,
depending on the levels of radioactivity.
Since then, the
authorities have progressively reopened these zones after
decontaminating the site, although only a handful of people have
returned to live in the area fearing persisting radioactivity.
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