Former judges say court cases involving nuclear plants were hard to judge

Former judges say court cases involving nuclear plants were hard to judge

Cases involving nuclear power plants were difficult to judge, according to former judges interviewed by the Mainichi.

Amid the current spate of lawsuits seeking shut downs of nuclear power plants after the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, the Mainichi interviewed 10 former judges who handled past lawsuits that dealt with the safety of nuclear plants.

Almost all the ex-judges talked about how hard it was to treat nuclear energy issues in court, and one judge said that after the Fukushima crisis he now feels he did not take the dangers of nuclear plants seriously enough. In none of the cases did the judges rule in favor of the residents who filed them.

Some judges, however, predicted that after recent events, courts will be more critical of the government and power utilities that operate nuclear power plants.

The 10 former judges were ...

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110917p2a00m0na023000c.html