Mental damage entitled to compensation

June 3, 2013

Residents win radiation uncertainty compensation

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130603_09.html

A group of nuclear accident evacuees in Fukushima has won a compensation settlement decision from a state-backed legal arbitration body for radiation exposure and future health uncertainties.

The Nuclear Damage Claim Dispute Resolution Center decided to recommend that Tokyo Electric Power Company pay damages to about 180 former residents of the Nagadoro District in Iitate Village.

Nagadoro is near the Fukushima nuclear plant where radiation levels remain high. It is the only district in Iitate that the government declared uninhabitable over the long term.

An evacuation order for the area was issued more than a month after the accident on March 11th, 2011.

The arbitrators accepted the residents' claim of fear and anxiety as they had lived without any protection against high radiation doses because of their delayed evacuation.

It was decided that TEPCO should pay about 10,000 dollars each to pregnant women and to those who are 18 years old or younger. The other residents would receive 5,000 dollars each.

The residents had already received compensation for having to evacuate, but the amount did not cover health anxieties.

The lawyers representing the residents said this is the first time for health anxiety compensation to be granted.

The district's chief administrator says the momentum is moving in the right direction. A TEPCO official says the utility will study the recommendation in detail.

Jun. 2, 2013 - Updated 22:54 UTC

Fukushima village residents to receive new compensation over mental damage

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130603p2a00m0na016000c.html

An alternative dispute resolution (ADR) entity in charge of the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant has decided to approve compensation for mental damage from radiation exposure for about 180 residents in the Nagadoro district in the Fukushima Prefecture village of Iitate.

Lawyers for the village residents said June 2 that the Nuclear Damage Claim Dispute Resolution Center notified the residents and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) of its decision.

It is the first time that the center has given its stamp of approval for redress for mental damage from radiation exposure. The residents and TEPCO will initiate negotiations based on the center's approval and such talks are likely to affect other residents around the crippled nuclear power plant who are seeking compensation.

The 180-odd residents stayed in the Nagadoro district of southern Iitate for at least two days after March 15, 2011 when high-levels of airborne radiation were detected due to the nuclear crisis, their lawyers said, adding the center has proposed paying 500,000 yen each to ordinary residents and 1 million yen each to pregnant women and children aged 18 years or younger for mental damage from radiation exposure.

The proposed redress is separate from a monthly payment of 100,000 yen to Fukushima residents over mental damage from having been forced to evacuate from the nuclear disaster. The center advanced the redress proposal in late May.

According to the Fukushima Prefectural Government's disaster headquarters, airborne radiation levels shot up to 40 microsieverts per hour at the Iitate village office from March 15, 2011, following the onset of the nuclear disaster but the village was designated a no-go zone as late as April 22, 2011. Radiation levels in the Nagadoro district were particularly high. Even after a reclassification of contaminated areas in July last year, an annual accumulative radiation dose topped 50 millisieverts (about 9.5 microsieverts per hour), keeping the district a "difficult to return" zone.

The residents had demanded 5 million yen each for mental damage from radiation exposure. But Katsunobu Kobayashi, one of their lawyers, said, "Despite a limited amount of money, the center recognized the state's and TEPCO's responsibilities over radiation exposure despite their attempts to ignore them. It is socially important."

A TEPCO spokesman said the utility cannot comment on individual cases but hopes to appropriately deal with the case.

Separately, the Fukushima Prefecture town of Namie has asked the center to approve compensation for mental damage from radiation exposure for over 10,000 town residents.