I have blogged a lot about the March 11, 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. I have also posted hundreds of links to articles about the situation at Fukushima as well as the social, political, economic and public health repercussions. There is widespread evidence of illegal activity and corruption at Fukushima as well as the agencies of the Japanese government that are supposed to regulate nuclear power plants. The government has passed harsh laws against citizens who reveal information about the nuclear disaster that contradicts the official government position. Despite overwhelming rejection of nuclear power by the majority of the Japanese people, Prime Minister Abe forges ahead with his plan to restart the idled nuclear reactors and to export nuclear technology.
In October of 2014, a lawsuit pertaining to the Fukushima disaster and its aftermath was filed in Japan. Lawyers filing the lawsuit are representing one thousand four hundred and fifteen plaintiffs including thirty eight people who resided in Fukushima and three hundred and fifty seven people who live outside of Japan. Named in the suit are the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), Toshiba, Hitachi and General Electric (GE). GE manufactured the reactors for Fukushima. Toshiba, Hitachi and General Electric were the companies that manufactured the tanks that were developed to hold radioactive liquids. The lawsuit holds the defendants responsible for the Fukushima disaster and all the damage that it caused.
In the past, manufactures and operators have been granted immunity from liability for accidents. Governments have granted this immunity because no insurance company in the world would offer insurance against nuclear accidents when the nuclear age began. This lawsuit is an major attempt to overturn this international policy.
The Japanese government and TEPCO have been accused of hiding information about the Fukushima disaster and the damage it caused so that the public would not know about the irresponsibility of the Japanese nuclear industry. TEPCO repeatedly lied about the amount of radiation that was and still is being released. TEPCO lied about having enough manpower to deal with the Fukushima cleanup when labor subcontractors said that there was a shortage of manpower. Inaccurate information has hampered cleanup efforts in Japan and discouraged the international aid that many experts say will be required to deal with the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster.
Prior to this lawsuit, GE which designed and built the Mark I Boiling Water Reactors that melted down at Fukushima, has not been held accountable for the Fukushima disaster. Critics of GE claim that the corporation escaped accountability because it had close ties to the Obama administration in the U.S. These reactors have been criticized since the early 1970s because they are particularly vulnerable to the build-up of hydrogen gas which can result in explosions and rupture of the containment vessel. There are currently twenty of the GE Mark I nuclear reactors operating in the U.S. that pose a serious threat to the ecosystem and public health. Another accident involving a Mark I reactor is virtually inevitable.
GE Mark I Boiling Water Reactor Diagram:
