Three former executives to be prosecuted in Fukushima nuclear disaster — The New York Times; The Japan Times

The New York Times:

” TOKYO — In the first criminal prosecutions of officials connected to the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster of 2011, the Japanese authorities said on Friday that they would move forward with cases against three former executives of the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the owner of the plant where reactors melted down after a devastating tsunami.

The move was a victory for citizens’ groups that have been pursuing charges against dozens of officials at Tokyo Electric Power, known as Tepco, and the government, with no success until now. Prosecutors had twice rejected requests to indict the three former Tepco executives, but a review board overruled their decision on Friday and ordered that charges be brought.

“We had given up hope that there would be a criminal trial,” said Ruiko Muto, an opponent of nuclear power who leads the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Plaintiffs Group, an umbrella organization representing about 15,000 people, including residents displaced by the accident and their supporters. “We’ve finally gotten this far.”

Tens of thousands of people who lived near the Fukushima Daiichi power plant have been separated from their homes since the meltdowns at three of the facility’s reactors, which spread radiation across a wide area. Evacuation orders have been lifted in some parts of the affected zone, but many former residents are still reluctant to return, because they fear for their health or because they no longer have jobs to support them there.

It is rare for prosecutors’ discretion over indictments to be challenged in Japan. The reversal was ordered by a panel of 11 private citizens, convened through a rarely used feature of the Japanese legal system that allows outsiders to review prosecutors’ decisions under certain circumstances.

It was the second time that such a panel, known as a committee for the inquest of prosecution, had determined that the former executives should be prosecuted. The first panel delivered its conclusion last year, after the Tokyo district prosecutors’ office rejected a criminal complaint against the executives filed by the plaintiffs group.

The prosecutors declined to act on the first panel’s recommendation, but the plaintiffs group appealed, and a second and final panel was convened. Under the rules governing the review panels, the second panel’s decision is binding on prosecutors.

The three executives who face indictment are Tsunehisa Katsumata, 75, the chairman of Tepco at the time of the accident, and two former heads of the utility’s nuclear division, Sakae Muto, 65, and Ichiro Takekuro, 69. The review panel ordered that they be charged with professional negligence resulting in death.

Tokyo Electric Power declined to comment on the panel’s decision.

Though the indictments represent a long-sought symbolic achievement for the antinuclear movement, the likelihood that the men will be found guilty at trial may be low. When Japanese prosecutors bring charges on their own initiative, they win convictions more than 99 percent of the time, but cases forced on them by citizens’ review panels are different. Almost by definition, they involve charges that prosecutors saw little hope of proving.

Nobuo Gohara, a former prosecutor who is now an attorney in private practice, said a large majority of such cases result in not guilty verdicts. To convict the Tokyo Electric Power executives, prosecutors would have to prove that their failure to predict the massive tsunami that struck Fukushima’s coast in March 2011, and to equip the power plant with sufficient protections against it, constituted an act of criminal oversight.

Even proving that the meltdowns killed people could be difficult, he said. A number of deaths have been linked to the evacuation, mostly of elderly nursing home and hospital patients whose weakened conditions made them vulnerable to being moved under chaotic circumstances, but the accident did not result in deaths from radiation poisoning.

“This is a very unusual case,” Mr. Gohara said. “The hurdles to conviction are high.” ”

source

* * *

The Japan Times:

” Three former top executives at Tokyo Electric Power Co. are set to be hauled into court over their alleged responsibility for the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis.

The Tokyo No. 5 Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution voted Friday that Tsunehisa Katsumata, chairman of Tepco at the time of the disaster, and two former vice presidents, Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro, should be indicted for professional negligence resulting in death and injury.

The announcement by the panel of citizens came more than four years after the massive tsunami of March 11, 2011, knocked out the critical cooling functions at Tepco’s Fukushima No. 1 plant, leading to three of the six reactors there melting down.

Prosecutors have twice previously decided not to seek such indictments, saying Tepco could not have expected such a massive tsunami to hit the nuclear plant and cripple its critical safety systems.

But on Friday the committee overrode the prosecutors’ decisions for a second time, which will lead to a compulsory indictment of the three Tepco executives. They were all responsible for major disaster prevention planning.

Holding a news conference at the Tokyo District Court, representatives of a group of Fukushima residents and others who have filed criminal complaints against the executives said they were elated.

“I want (the Tepco executives) to tell the truth” during the upcoming trials, said Ruiko Muto.

Muto said many elderly people who evacuated from the radiation-contaminated areas have since died in shelters away from their hometowns, while numerous people still living in Fukushima are being exposed to radiation via contaminated materials from the heavily damaged plant.

Muto said many people outside the prefecture have the impression that the nuclear crisis is over.

“If who should be held responsible is not made clear, (the dead) victims won’t rest in peace,” she added.

Before the catastrophe, Tepco had conducted simulations and concluded that critical facilities at Fukushima No. 1 would be flooded and critically damaged if a major earthquake struck off the Tohoku coast and tsunami of more than 10 meters in height hit the plant.

But prosecutors concluded that it was impossible for Tepco to predict such gigantic tsunami would actually hit the plant, as opinions from quake experts were not established regarding the possibility of such a powerful quake.

The judicial review committee said the Tepco executives were obliged to prepare for a worst-case scenario even if the possibility of such a disaster was considered very small.

The simulations provided a good indication that a major crisis was possible, but the three neglected their obligation to prepare for such an eventuality, the committee concluded in a 30-page document explaining its decision.

The panel pointed out that 44 patients who were forced to evacuate from a hospital located 4.5 km from Fukushima No. 1 died after their health conditions deteriorated because of the move. The committee alleged that their deaths were caused by the meltdown crisis.

Meanwhile, no health damage has so far been confirmed to have been caused by radiation from contaminated materials released from the plant.

The committee said one person who was exposed to radiation from contaminated materials has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, but a causal link with the meltdown disaster has not been established.

The central government is preparing to allow the reactivation of some commercial reactors suspended in the wake of the Fukushima crisis.

Muto said she hopes the findings in the upcoming trials will prompt a change in the national nuclear policy and lead to the abolition of all nuclear power plants. ”

source

Fukushima-tainted Tepco to join JPX-Nikkei Index 400 ‘shame gauge’ — The Japan Times

” A stock index showcasing Japan’s best companies is about to include one of its most controversial: the utility behind the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

The JPX-Nikkei Index 400 picks firms with the best operating income, return on equity and market value to shame executives of those it excludes into boosting profit and shareholder returns.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. will be added when the gauge changes its constituents next month, according to Nomura Holdings Inc., Daiwa Securities Group Inc. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. Surges in earnings and share price sent the operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 power plant into contention for a place.

Inclusion in the government-inspired shame index means the world’s largest pension fund, which is estimated to own more than half the assets tracking the measure, would buy more of a company’s shares. Adding Tepco raises questions about the quality of a gauge devised as a badge of honor for the 400 stocks chosen each year.

“There’s much debate on whether Tepco is suitable for an index of good companies, but if you abide by the rules, you can’t exclude it,” said Keiichi Ito, chief quants analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. in Tokyo. “Many investors don’t own the stock, so the effect on the share price could be big.”

JPX-Nikkei 400 constituents are picked based on three-year average return on equity, which measures how efficiently capital is used, and cumulative operating profit, each accounting for 40 percent of the selection criteria. Market value makes up the remaining 20 percent. About 10 firms can also be replaced based on corporate-governance standards, such as providing English- language results and appointing at least two independent outside directors.

Tepco jumped from 973rd last year to 280th under the selection criteria, according to analysis by Mizuho.

The utility’s market value rose to ¥1.1 trillion ($8.62 billion) as of the June 30 calculation date, about 60 percent higher than a year before, as shares jumped on optimism Japan will restart its nuclear plants.

Three-year average return on equity is about 12 percent, compared with minus 29 percent a year earlier. Cumulative operating income over the three years also turned positive, buoyed by two years of profit.

Core meltdowns at three reactors in Tepco’s Fukushima No. 1 station in March 2011 forced the evacuation of about 160,000 people and rendered some areas uninhabitable for decades. The company has faced radiation leaks at the Fukushima site, questions over the hiring and treatment of workers there, and has been accused of having a lax safety culture that allowed “man-made” failures to occur before and after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

“People wouldn’t expect a company like Tepco to be in an index that’s supposed to represent dynamic Japan,” said Jonathan Allum, a strategist at SMBC Nikko Capital Markets Ltd. in London. “The index isn’t quite what it’s cracked up to be.”

This is the second reassessment of the shame gauge’s constituents since the index started last year. In the first, Panasonic Corp. was among 31 companies added, while fellow consumer-electronics manufacturer Sony Corp. was dumped. . . . ”

continue reading

Tepco finally admitted irregular sinking in Fukushima plant — Fukushima Diary

” On 7/21/2015, Tepco announced Fukushima plant area has irregularly sunk since 311.

It has been known that the reference point sank by 709 mm but Tepco has not reported the height above the sea level of each building.

The report reads Reactor 1 turbine building sank by 730 mm, Reactor 2 by 725 mm, Reactor 3 by 710 mm, Reactor 4 by 712 mm.

However the readings of reactor buildings were not published for some reason.

The buildings can be inclining due to this irregular sinking but the inclining degree has not been announced either. ”

Tepco’s report

source

Fukushima compensation increased to ¥7 trillion — The Japan Times

” The government has approved an increase in compensation payments for the Fukushima nuclear crisis to ¥7.07 trillion as tens of thousands of evacuees remain in temporary housing more than four years after the disaster.

Tokyo Electric Power Co will receive ¥950 billion more in public funds on top of the ¥6.125 trillion agreed earlier, the utility and the government said Tuesday.

The increase, agreed after a request by Tepco, adds to the bill for taxpayers for the disaster.

Tepco has face a stream of legal cases seeking compensation over the disaster at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

Electricity bills for households have also risen 25 percent since the catastrophe as the country resorted to importing more fossils fuels with the gradual shutdown of all reactors for safety checks and upgrades.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government and Tepco, which was bailed out by taxpayers in 2012, are undertaking an unprecedented cleanup to lower radiation levels in towns closest to the plant, although some areas will likely remain off-limits for decades.

Inside the plant, Tepco has struggled to bring the situation under control and it is estimated removing the melted fuel from the wrecked reactors and cleaning up the site will cost trillions of yen and take decades to complete.

The government plans to revoke evacuation orders for most people forced from their homes by the disaster within two years as part of a plan to cap compensation payouts and speed up reconstruction. ”

source

Kyle Cleveland, sociologist at Temple University’s Japan Campus — Enenews

Kyle Cleveland’s speech was published on Apr 29, 2015, on Youtube. His speech was taken off Youtube today, but part of the transcript is still available on Enenews.

” Like everyone else we were seeing what was on the media. The media was very alarmist, and I think ironically, some of what were taken as an overreaction or a panic in the first couple of weeks of the crisis subsequently have been vindicated to be in some ways quite reasonable claims and worries as more information have been revealed, as gov’t reports have been written… Those reports have demonstrated that the situation was really quite more serious at the time than certainly what the government was saying, and certainly what TEPCO was saying at the time. My starting point for my research was looking into the government’s FOIA documents. I was very surprised to see that there is a big difference within the United States government as they were trying to determine just how bad this was. And what I realized in those documents is that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission… was recommending a 50-mile (80 km) exclusionary zone. This was an stark contrast to the Japanese government’s recommendation of 30 km. And also I was very interested to see that the the US Navy Pacific Command and particularly naval reactors, was recommending a 200-mile exclusionary zone. So that’s a rather profound gap between 30 kilometers on the one hand with the Japanese government 80 km from the NRC [and] something like over 300 km for the US Navy… But ironically aside from the staff at the Daiichi plant maybe some at the very first people who were hit by the radioactive plume were sailors who run the United States Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group… They detected the plume at about 132 miles distance from the Daiichi plant. The FOIA  documents… demonstrate that these government officials… were very concerned about the levels that they were reading. They were indicating that they were about 30 times above background levels, and that they would exceed a ‘protective action guideline’ criteria within about a 10 hour period… The reason the US Navy had recommended a 200-mile exclusionary zone was that the Yokosuka naval base is about a 163 miles from the Daiichi plant… at the same time that the Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier was detecting the nuclear plume, the George Washington aircraft carrier which was ported down near Yokosuka was also detecting a plume and the result that they were getting were really quite alarming to them. “

USS reagan sailors sue for nuclear justice

Attorney Charles Bonner gives an update on his class action litigation on behalf of 250+ named military personnel harmed by exposure to Fukushima fallout during an aid mission in March 2011. The mission was called Operation Tomodachi; “tomodachi” means “friends” in Japanese. The suit targets the plant operator and its manufacturers — GE, EBASCO, Toshiba and Hitachi. These sailors, many of whom were in their young 20s up to 35 years old during the mission, have been suffering from various forms of cancer, atrophies, cataracts, skin conditions, etc., starting within the first year after their return from Japan. Three sailors exposed to radiation have died, and one named sailor’s wife gave birth to a baby with genetic mutations.

Bonner notes that many reactors all over the United States share the same GE design as Fukushima No. 1. And guess what, they’re ALL leaking!

source