7,000 people in Japan seek nuclear disaster compensation
Over 7,000 people living near Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture, where a nuclear disaster occurred in 2011, have sought compensations totaling 1.85 billion yen (15 million dollars) from the nuclear plant’s operator.
A total of 7,128 people from Tochigi Prefecture, situated about 100 kilometers (62 miles) southwest of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, argued on Monday that they should be eligible to receive the compensation even though they were not residing in Fukushima at the time of the country’s worst nuclear accident.
The residents demanded sums ranging from 120,000 yen (970 dollars) to 720,000 yen per person through an out-of-court settlement with operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), an apology from the company, and the establishment of a fund to pay for decontamination work and health check-ups, their lawyers said.
“We want TEPCO to take seriously the fact that over 7,000 people raised their voices,” lawyer Koji Otani told a news conference.
On March 11, 2011, a nine-magnitude earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami that inflicted heavy damage on the six-reactor Fukushima plant. The cooling systems of the plant’s reactors were knocked out, leading to meltdowns and the release of radioactive radiation into the air, soil and sea.
The incident, considered the world’s worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, also led to the evacuation of 160,000 people from areas near the power plant.
MSM/HJL
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