The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday sentenced four former executives of the company that owns the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant to pay 13.32 trillion yen ($97 billion). They were accused of failing to foresee and prevent the catastrophe of 2011, when the station was hit by a tsunami.
The plaintiffs, shareholders of TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company), say that the company's executives, of course, will not be able to pay that kind of money, but let them give everything they have.
This money should go exactly to TEPCO - to cover its gigantic costs of dismantling reactors, deactivating a large area and compensating local residents.
The largest after Chernobyl
The radiation leak at Fukushima-1 in 2011 was the largest catastrophe since Chernobyl at a nuclear power plant.
A huge 10-meter tsunami, which hit the east coast of Japan on March 11, 2011 after the most powerful earthquake in its history, flooded the power systems and backup generators of the reactor cooling system.
As a result, the station was de-energized, nuclear fuel melted in three operating reactors, then explosions occurred, and radioactive materials scattered over a large area.
As recalled by Agence France-Presse, immediately after the disaster, 12% of the territory of Fukushima Prefecture, or about 1,300 sq. km, were declared a zone of dangerous contamination.
Now 2% of the prefecture's territory remains in the exclusion zone, but there are much fewer people living in the previously evacuated settlements than before the disaster.
The plaintiffs argued that the leaders of TEPCO should have foreseen the possibility of such a catastrophe and, for example, build a station higher above sea level (the nuclear power plant is right on the shore
The defendants objected that a tsunami of this magnitude was impossible to predict, and under normal conditions for Japan, the station met all the requirements.
Plaintiffs' lawyer Hiroyuki Kawai called the Tokyo court's decision historic.
"We understand that 13 trillion yen is a lot more than they can afford," Kawai told reporters, adding that his clients want TEPCO executives to give the firm as much as they can.
في عام 2012 ، عندما تم رفع الدعوى ، قال كاواي: "ربما يتعين علينا بيع المنزل. ربما يتعين علينا قضاء شيخوختنا في الفقر. في اليابان ، لا يمكن تقرير أي شيء ، ولن تتحرك أي قضية دون إنشاء الشخص المسؤول."
ونقلت رويترز عن أحد المدعين ، يوي كيمورا ، أن "الحوادث في محطات الطاقة النووية تؤدي إلى عواقب لا رجعة فيها على الناس والبيئة". يجب أن يكون القائد ".
يبقى أن نرى ما إذا كان التنفيذيون في TEPCO سيستأنفون ضد قرار الدفع العملاق.
واعتذرت الشركة نفسها ، في بيان بعد المحاكمة ، مرة أخرى لسكان فوكوشيما ، لكنها لم تعلق على القرار نفسه.