Three of Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) former executives were indicted on Monday on charges of professional negligence for their failure to take the appropriate measures that could have prevented the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant in 2011.
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The executives were charged without arrest for professional negligence, according to a Tokyo District Court official who asked not to be named because of internal policy.
It will be the first criminal trial over responsibility for the tsunami-sparked reactor meltdowns that forced tens of thousands from their homes in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
The three are former chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, 75, and former executive vice presidents Sakae Muto, 65, and Ichiro Takekuro, 69.
Prosecutors have twice dropped indictments citing insufficient evidence, but in July a judiciary panel made up of Japanese citizens reviewed the case and ruled that the men should face trial, forcing the prosecutors to reopen it.
The committee found that the executives in questions knew as early as July 2009 that the nuclear plant, located on the Pacific coast in the prefecture, could possibly be hit by an earthquake-triggered tsunami of more than 15-meters high – such as the one that inundated the plant two years later – yet did nothing to take preemptive, preventative measures to fortify the facility.
It also blamed the three for injuries to 13 people, including Self-Defense Forces members, when hydrogen explosions occurred at the plant and the death of 44 hospital patients who were evacuated in harsh conditions.
It is claimed by the prosecutors that the patients’ deaths, who were elderly or gravely ill, were linked to their move in the immediate aftermath of the meltdown as they were evacuated, but that connection has not been formally confirmed.
TEPCO declined to comment Monday.
While struggling with the decades-long cleanup of the wrecked Fukushima plant, TEPCO is hoping to restart two nuclear reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in northern Japan.
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An aerial view shows Tokyo Electric Power Co’s tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and its contaminated water storage tanks in this August 2013 file photo taken by Kyodo. Of the 43 workable reactors in Japan, three have been put back online since past year, while the others are still offline for repairs or safety checks.
