Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) – More than eight years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, this morning the Tokyo District Court acquitted three former executives (picture) of the company that runs the plant from the professional negligence charge. Theirs was the only criminal proceeding following the dramatic accident, second only to that of Chernobyl in 1986. In March 2011, a post-earthquake tsunami hit the Daiichi plant operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (Tepco), triggering the meltdown of three reactors. The misfortune forced 160,000 people to flee, many of whom have never returned to their homes.
Tsunehisa Katsumata, 79-year-old former chairman of TEPCO, and vice-presidents Ichiro Takekuro (73) and Sakae Muto (69), were charged with failing to implement effective tsunami countermeasures. According to the prosecutors, their negligence caused the death of 44 people, including patients forced to evacuate from the nearby hospital. Added to this are the serious injuries sustained by 13 employees in hydrogen explosions in the plant. The prosecutors had asked for a five-year prison sentence for the trio, arguing that the defendants would have avoided the nuclear disaster if they fulfilled their responsibility to gather information and implement security measures.
During the trial, the defense argued that based on the government's assessment - which the former executives considered unreliable - the three could not have predicted tsunami waves on the scale of those that hit the plant; even the installation of coastal levees would not have prevented the disaster. Announcing the verdict, judge Kenichi Nagafuchi said: " It would be impossible to operate a nuclear plant if operators are obliged to predict every possibility about a tsunami and take necessary measures."
In a statement released shortly after the sentence, TEPCO declares that "We once again offer our sincerest apologies for causing great trouble and worries to many people, including people in Fukushima Prefecture. Starting with Fukushima's reconstruction, we are putting all efforts" on providing compensation for damages related to the disaster, decommissioning work and decontamination". The company concludes by adding that it is determined to strengthen security measures in its nuclear power plants.
