"Fukushima disaster: Japanese power company chiefs cleared of negligence", 19 Sep 2019

Three former executives at the company that runs the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been acquitted of failing to prevent the March 2011 nuclear meltdown, in the only criminal action resulting from the disaster.

Tsunehisa Katsumata, a former chairman of Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) and former vice presidents Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro, had apologised for the triple meltdown at the plant, but said they could not have foreseen the massive tsunami that triggered the disaster.

Prosecutors had accused the former executives of failing to act on information that showed the risks to the plant from a major tsunami...

The defendants had all pleaded not guilty to charges of professional negligence resulting in death, arguing that the data available to them before the disaster was unreliable...

“More than eight years after the start of this catastrophe, Tepco and the government are still avoiding being held to full account for their decades of ignoring the science of nuclear risks.” [declared Shaun Burnie, senior nuclear specialist at Greenpeace Germany]