The case of hundreds of U.S. Marines, sailors, and airmen who say they were sickened by radioactive fallout after they served in a relief force sent to render aid to Japan in 2011 is being heard in a Pasadena federal courtroom this week.
The 9th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals in Pasadena is set to hear a case against Tokyo Electric Power Company and several other co-defendants for allegedly lying to American forces about the risk of radiation exposure after they responded to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster.
Former Senator John Edwards, the 2004 Democratic nominee for vice president, has pledged both legal and personal support to the service personnel. His law firm represents the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit against TEPCO, who operated the plant, also implicates other big-name corporations, such as General Electric, Toshiba, Hitachi and EBASCO. It maintains that the companies disregarded safety measures and lied about the risks of radiation emitted from the damaged reactor, luring American forces into danger, according to Stars and Stripes. The plaintiffs’ lawyers said they don’t expect a ruling before November.
Some of the plaintiffs allege they have developed serious illnesses as a result, such as cancers, ulcers, thyroid issues and uterine bleeding, though the U.S. Federal government said the radiation levels their service members encountered were too low to cause these kinds of abnormalities, according to Stars and Stripes.
The 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant was severely damaged on March 11, 2011, after a 9.0 undersea earthquake off the coast of Japan caused a massive tsunami to slam into it, destroying the emergency generators that were cooling it down, forcing it to overheat and release radioactive material.