© Agence France-Presse/TEPCOWorkers removing fresh nuclear fuel (black pole at centre), for the first time since last year's tsunami-sparked crisis, from the spent fuel pool of the Unit 4 nuclear reactor building at TEPCO's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant at Okuma town in Fukushima prefecture
American sailors have filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government for allegedly lying about the health risks they faced while assisting in rescue efforts after last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Crewmembers from the USS
Ronald Reagan filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in San Diego, California this week in an attempt to hold Japan accountable for any long-term damage they'll caused during "Operation Tomadachi," the spring 2011 relief effort that sent sailors near the coast of Japan to assist in the days after an earthquake and subsequent tsunami ravaged the island nation and caused a level 7 meltdown at three reactors in the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.
The plaintiffs, eight sailors from the 5,500 or so that were aboard the USS
Reagan at the time, say Japan did not act honestly in regards to explaining the severity of the meltdown and the risks they faced in involving themselves in the relief efforts. They are asking the state-owned Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) for $10 million in compensatory damages, as well as another $30 million in punitive damages for fraud, negligence, strict liability, failure to warn, public and private nuisance and defective design, Courthouse News Service reports.
Additionally, the sailors want TEPCO to set up a $100 million fund to pay for any future medical expenses they're accrue as a result of the relief effort.
Courthouse News claims that plaintiffs say in the complaint that TEPCO, "a wholly owned public benefit subsidiary of the government of Japan," misrepresented radiation levels after the meltdown in order to lull the US Navy "into a false sense of security."
Comment: Bristol city council isn't the only local authority to have acted on this plan, according to the Daily Telegraph: The Bristol city council plan further states: If this is just tongue-in-cheek, as the Daily Telegraph makes out, then the joke appears to making the rounds among the Anglo-American elite...
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