Japan court blames government for nuclear accident

A court in Japan on Friday found the government and the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant guilty for the 2011 nuclear accident and ordered them to pay for the massive damages.

The Maebashi District Court said the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power should have taken more measures to prevent the nuclear disaster which led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

The ruling, which follows a class action lawsuit by 137 evacuees, is the first among similar suits filed across the country to order compensation to acknowledge the government's responsibility in the accident and order it to pay compensation, state broadcaster NHK reported.

The accident at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was initiated primarily by the tsunami following the earthquake on March 11, 2011.

Immediately after the earthquake, the active reactors automatically shut down their sustained fission reactions.

Reactors No. 1, 2 and 3 suffered partial meltdowns.

The Fukushima nuclear accident is considered the world's worst since Ukraine's Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

--IANS

ksk/mr