Dear SSJ Forum members,

I am also without much in the way of a legal background, but I doubt that TEPCO would be held liable for damage to the environment although I expect some BP-like compensation to eventually be paid to local residents and farmers for lost income and medical expenses.

What I am wondering is if the plant workers have a claim. Japanese workers have had some success in a series of lawsuits regarding termination and gender discrimination but I cannot remember any cases about worker safety. Although Fukushima is important in its own right, one broader question it raises is how much pressure companies face to improve worker safety. (And yes, the US has had its own serious shortcomings in this areas, especially in the manufacture of materials for nuclear weapons, e.g., the Fernald Feed Materials plant in Ohio).

Two things struck me about Terril Jones' story. First, power was not restored immediately. It could be that emergency battery or diesel generators were in effect in more crucial parts of the reactor than where the interviewee was, but if not, that is problematic for a power company. Second, a emergency response system that traps workers in the space in which they are possibly being irradiated in order to test them for radiation exposure is a lousy system. They should at least be evacuated out of the reactor buildings.

A nuclear power plant that is expected to operate for up to 50 years must be prepared for a one hundred year event because the odds of something going very, very wrong are by definition 50-50.

Yours truly,

Margaret Gibbons