Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Owner May Avoid All Liability for Nuclear Accident

EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Owner May Avoid All Liability for Nuclear Accident

Another wonderful example of corporate royalty and their immunity to natural common law Travinyle1

Despite extremely questionable design engineering that saved Tokyo Power and Electric many millions of dollars, but ignored the threat of a major tsunami, the company may not be liable for any damages resulting from its Fukuskima Daiichii nuclear power plant disaster.

According to Paul J. Scalise, a former financial analyst, who is writing a book on Japan’s electric power system, under Japanese law governing compensation for nuclear damage, companies are liable for the cost of all nuclear accidents resulting from reactor operations except when the accidents are provoked by a “grave natural disaster of an exceptional nature or by an insurrection.” The company might plausibly seek to avoid liability altogether within that definition, he said, according to NYT.

So the question becomes one of whether the tsunami provoked the accident or whether design shortcuts resulted in the accident, because the tsunami should have been anticipated.

Beyond that, it appears that the Japanese government may step into the picture, in any case, in a manner similar to the way the United States government stepped in to bailout elite banks during the height of the financial crisis.