TEPCo, the owner of the destroyed nuclear power plant at Fukushima, was ordered by a Japanese district court to pay $472,000 to a family of chicken farmers to compensate for the suicide of Hamako Watanabe [photo credit: Reuters/Kyodo]. She became depressed after the family was forced to move from their farm to escape radioactivity released by plant's multiple meltdowns in July 2011. Mikio doused herself with kerosene and ignited it. Her husband refused to settle with the government-connected power company; the favorable ruling came as a surprise to observers. More than 150,000 residents were forced from their homes and a third of those are still living in temporary shelters. TEPCo is expected to spend $48bn in compensation for the disaster in addition to tens of billions for cleanup, containment and decommissioning. The successful lawsuit opens the way for millions more in damage claims for mental disorders allegedly resulting from the meltdowns. Awards for work-related suicides or deaths linked to overwork have a median of 36 million yen ($347,000) in the past twenty years. More than 50 of the 1500 suicides in the prefecture since April 2011 have been linked to the Fukushima nuclear facility. 1300 Fukushima citizens filed a criminal complaint against three former TEPCo executives for the disaster. Prosecutors have until October to decide if they should proceed; a citizen's judicial panel can then mandate a prosecution. The citizens' complaint came after an independent panel of experts concluded that the Fukushima disaster was preventable. Their report said that the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami was not the sole cause of the plant's destruction, but the inability of the company and the government to respond quickly caused the disaster. The report termed the failure a "lack of governance" and "collusion" between the responsible parties. The report is based on an unprecedented six month investigation involving 900 hours of hearings. ;After the verdict TEPCo issued another apology for the "disruption and concern" caused by the meltdowns. TEPCo shares have already been discounted by the market, so there was little reaction to the award.
An active fault underlies Kansai Electric Power Co's Ohi plant in western Japan. Unit#3 began re-supplying electricity to grid in July. Twenty-one of Japan's oldest reactors were constructed before seismic guidelines were established in 1981.