[앵커]
A Japanese court has ordered the management of TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, to pay 127 trillion won in compensation.
The court, which ordered the payment of the largest amount of compensation in the history of a Japanese trial, criticized the management’s fundamental lack of safety awareness at the time.
Correspondent Lee Kyung-ah from Tokyo reports.
[기자]
A year after the Fukushima nuclear accident, shareholders of Tokyo Electric Power Corporation, the operator, filed a lawsuit against the then management.
It is said that the accident could not be prevented because safety measures such as the construction of seawalls were not properly implemented in preparation for a huge tsunami.
The plaintiff argued that the management should pay the company about 209 trillion won that TEPCO paid for compensation and decommissioning of the victims.
A Japanese court ordered compensation of about 127 trillion won.
At the time, management claimed that the tsunami had not been predicted that much, and that they did not have time to prepare if they did, but they did not accept it.
The judge also made a painful point, saying that they “fundamentally lacked a sense of safety and responsibility.”
[원고 측 관계자 : 원전은 한번 사고가 나면 되돌릴 수 없는 피해를 생명과 환경에 남기게 됩니다. 이런 원전을 운영하는 회사 경영진에게는 다른 회사와 비교할 수 없는 커다란 책임이 수반되는 것입니다.]
This is the first time that a Japanese court has admitted civil liability of the then management over the Fukushima nuclear accident.
The amount of compensation is also the highest in the history of a Japanese court.
However, the Japanese Supreme Court ruled last month that the government was not responsible for the lawsuits the victims brought against the state.
The Japanese government is paying attention to the impact of the lawsuit on the restart of nuclear power plants in the future.
[마쓰노 히로카즈 / 일본 관방장관 : 앞으로도 원자력 활용에 있어 안전 신화에 빠져 비참한 사고를 막지 못했다는 반성을 한시도 잊지 않고 무엇보다 안전성을 우선해 국민 우려를 해소하는데 전력을 기울일 것입니다.]
The Japanese government emphasized that if the Atomic Energy Regulatory Commission recognizes that it meets the standards, it will proceed with the restart of nuclear power plants with the understanding of local residents.
This is Kyungah Lee from YTN in Tokyo.
YTN Kyungah Lee ([email protected])
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