Sunday, June 19, 2022

Government Not Responsible for Fukushima Disaster

The Supreme Court in Japan has ruled (3-1 with four judges) that the government has no responsibility for the disaster when a tsunami hit the Fukushima power plant in 2011. 


The plaintiffs had argued that the government could have ordered the owners of the power plant to build protections against tsunamis, because of the knowledge of the probability of such tsunamis. The defendant claim was that such protection would not have helped, due to the tsunami that actually struck Fukushima.


Most nuclear power plants in Japan have not been restarted after 2011, but some have. 


It is sad that in a country where there are historical evidence of great tsunamis striking the east coast before, the nuclear power plant was not sufficiently protected. Old stones with text high up from the coast give evidence of how far tsunamis of previous centuries reached. I do not know of all the evidence of the court case. Some lower courts had put blame on the government, others had not. There was one justice in the Supreme Court who did not agree with the others. Despite my uncertainties, and the need to respect the ruling of the Supreme Court, I do believe the government should have been to blame, to some extent. 

No comments: