A Japanese district court ruled on Friday that the state and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) are liable for the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
A group of 137 evacuees from 45 households filed a damages suit with the Maebashi District Court seeking compensation of 13 million US dollars for “moral damages.” It is the first suit of its kind in Japan.
Over 12,000 people have filed similar suits in Japan, according to a report by the NHK news organization.
A 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggered a massive tsunami in eastern Japan in March 2011, which destroyed the emergency power and the cooling system of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Some 300,000 residents were forced to evacuate after radiation spewed from the plant.
Six years on, high-level radiation inside the damaged reactor continues to affect the surrounding areas.
The Fukushima nuclear leak was one of the most serious nuclear disasters since the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
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