MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th March, 2021) Residents of Japan's Fukushima prefecture have filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for radiation exposure due to the government's lackluster initial response to the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant incident in 2011, which allegedly left them exposed to radiation, the NHK broadcaster reported Friday.
According to the news outlet, 29 plaintiffs from one of the Iitate village filed the suit with the Tokyo District Court earlier in the day, seeking approximately $1.9 million in damages from the government and the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company.
The villagers, whose settlement was about 18 miles away from the plant, did not receive evacuation orders at the beginning. The village was, however, designated as an evacuation zone a month later.
The plaintiffs claim that by failing to inform them about rising radiation levels early on the government allowed them to get exposed to radiation.
A 9.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Japan in March 2011 triggered a massive tsunami and a meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in the Fukushima prefecture. The decommissioning of the plant is still underway.
