TEPCO ex-chair at time of Fukushima nuclear disaster dies at 84 while on trial over responsibility

TOKYO — Tokyo Electrical Energy Firm Holdings’ former chairperson, who led the emergency response after a meltdown at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and was accused of being liable for failing to stop the catastrophe as prime administration, has died, along with his trials nonetheless pending. He was 84.

Tsunehisa Katsumata died on Oct. 21, TEPCO mentioned Thursday, with out offering additional particulars together with the reason for his demise.

Katsumata was TEPCO chair when Fukushima Daiichi was hit by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 and suffered triple meltdowns. He led the emergency response after the corporate’s then-president stepped down as a consequence of well being issues and served till mid-2012.

He later grew to become one of many defendants in high-profile felony and civil lawsuits in search of TEPCO administration’s duty over their alleged failure to anticipate the large quake and tsunami and to take preventive measures.

Practically 6,000 Fukushima residents in 2012 filed the felony criticism, accusing a number of former TEPCO executives, together with Katsumata, {of professional} negligence within the demise of greater than 40 aged sufferers throughout or after compelled evacuations within the aftermath of the meltdown, which launched massive quantities of radiation to the environment.

After prosecutors dropped the case, Katsumata and two different former executives have been indicted in 2016 by a residents’ inquest of prosecution and compelled to face trial in the one felony case associated to the Fukushima catastrophe.

Katsumata and two co-defendants pleaded not responsible, saying predicting the tsunami was unimaginable, and have been acquitted within the district and excessive courtroom rulings. The case is now pending on the Supreme Courtroom.

Katsumata additionally confronted a civil trial filed by a gaggle of TEPCO shareholders and was ordered by the Tokyo District Courtroom in 2022 to pay damages exceeding 13 trillion yen ($85 trillion) with three different former executives. The case is pending at Tokyo Excessive Courtroom.

Katsumata, who was president of TEPCO from 2002 to 2008, was additionally accountable for harm management and pushing company governance following the utility’s earlier knowledge coverup scandal. He joined TEPCO in 1963.

As head of the highly effective utility, Katsumata additionally served key posts in enterprise organizations, akin to Keidanren, and had main affect over Japanese politics and business.

Right now, greater than 13 years after the accident, Fukushima Daiichi is being decommissioned — a decades-long course of that’s nonetheless at an early stage.

In current months, TEPCO has struggled to get a primary tiny quantity of melted gasoline particles from one of many three broken reactors utilizing a remote-controlled robo t. If profitable, the pattern’s return can be a milestone that might contribute to additional analysis into analyzing the melted gasoline and creating vital expertise to take away the 880 tons of melted gasoline particles that stay contained in the three reactors.