Fukushima Citizens Group to Sue TEPCO & Government for Negligence

Fukushima citizens to accuse TEPCO, gov't of negligence over crisis

Several workers are seen tending to the remains of the No. 4 reactor that was heavily damaged by a hydrogen explosion shortly after the outbreak of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant in this photo taken on Feb. 20. (Mainichi)

FUKUSHIMA (Kyodo) -- Two civic groups in Fukushima Prefecture are planning to file a criminal complaint against senior officials of Tokyo Electric Power Co. and government bodies for professional negligence over the Fukushima nuclear crisis, group members said Wednesday.

The antinuclear groups will hold a rally Friday in the city of Iwaki with an eye to mobilizing about 1,000 Fukushima residents to lodge the complaint in mid-May with the Fukushima District Public Prosecutors Office against officials of the governmental Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency as well as TEPCO, they said.

They will claim that the failure of the utility operating the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant and the government bodies to prevent the nuclear crisis left many people exposed to radiation and some inpatients dead while fleeing from nearby medical institutions.

The groups are also considering accusing those officials of violating a law on pollution causing health hazards by having spread massive amounts of radioactive substances following the crisis triggered by the devastating earthquake and tsunami last year.

Kazuyoshi Sato, a 58-year-old member of the Iwaki municipal assembly in charge of one of the groups, said he believes it is "nonsense that nobody has been held criminally responsible for causing a major nuclear accident."

"I'd like to call on as many Fukushima people as possible, including those who are taking shelter in areas outside of the prefecture, to join our action," Sato said.

The TEPCO headquarters building, center. (Mainichi)

Yukuo Yasuda, a lawyer supporting the groups, said the citizens are set to accuse TEPCO of failure to take necessary measures to cope with massive tsunami even though the possibility of such a disaster was pointed out before the March 11 calamity last year.

The citizens will also accuse the government's nuclear safety bodies of not instructing TEPCO to implement steps to avoid a major accident, Yasuda said.

(Mainichi Japan) March 15, 2012