USA/FILE: Former U.S. sailors announce Radiation lawsuit two years after Fukushima nuclear meltdown

Record ID: 216029

  • Title: USA/FILE: Former U.S. sailors announce Radiation lawsuit two years after Fukushima nuclear meltdown
  • Date: 11th March 2013
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MARCH 11, 2013) (REUTERS) JAIME PLYM, FORMER QUARTERMASTER, U.S. NAVY AND MAURICE ENIS, FORMER QUARTERMASTER, U.S. NAVY SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAIME PLYM, FORMER QUARTERMASTER, U.S. NAVY, SAYING: "Our job as quartermasters is not only navigating the ship, driving, plotting our course and track, but going outside to the top of the s
  • Embargoed: 26th March 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Legal System,Disasters,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAF3U3JDFK3KDGKVDE11S4X257S
  • Story Text: Two former U.S. Navy sailors announced plans to sue the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) for radiation exposure they suffered while responding to the nuclear meltdown at the company's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
    During a news conference held in New York City on Monday (March 11), the two year anniversary of the nuclear meltdown, former U.S. Navy quartermasters Jaime Plym and Maurice Enis described the medical problems they suffered after being exposed to radiation from the hobbled plant.
    Plym and Enis were on board the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier when it responded to help Japan about a day after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown.
    Plym said the aircraft carrier remained off the coast of Japan for about two months. And both she and Enis worked outside.
    "Our job as quartermasters is not only navigating the ship, driving, plotting our course and track, but going outside to the top of the ship to raise flags to communicate with other ships. So being outside, we were breathing in this radiation, we were handling flags, which are porous, very porous material, obviously. The ropes that we used to haul the flags up are polyester, so again a very porous material that just absorbed the radiation. We didn't really hear anything for probably a couple weeks after about a leak in the power plants and even then it was still considered kind of a rumor," said Plym.
    Enis said after working outside one day, he was delivered very bad news.
    "They told me I had received the highest amount of radiation out of anybody on the ship. And then later we found out that our work area, since it was outside, had the highest readings for radiation because of all our flags and all our line that we use to haul up stuff. And they cut off all our area to the rest of the ship," he described.
    Enis detailed his medical problems since being exposed to the radiation.
    "Like two months after, a lump appeared on my jaw and I went and got that looked at by the Navy medical and they told me that there is nothing they can do about it while we are out to sea, that we'd have to wait for us to pull in. And another lump appeared between my eyes. I have another lump on my right thigh. As soon as I got out of the military, I went back to college and I started playing college sports again and I actually ran within three seconds of an Olympic time for my track and field team. And slowly after that, my body just started to fall apart. It's harder for me to breathe now. It feels a lot like my lungs are too big for my body whenever I do something strenuous. I lost a lot of weight from the time that I was in the Navy until now. I got stomach ulcers," he said.
    Plym and Enis said since leaving the U.S. military, they are having trouble paying for their medical treatment.
    The former sailors said so far about 115 former and current military personnel have joined the lawsuit, and more people may join.
    They accuse the Fukushima nuclear plant's owner, TEPCO, of failing to warn U.S. officials about the extent of the radiation released from their reactors.
    By law, Plym and Enis are not allowed to sue the U.S. military and they stopped short of accusing the U.S. military of deceiving them.
    On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake triggered a massive tsunami that not only ripped through Tohoku's coastline, killing nearly 16,000 people, it also crashed into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, setting off an unprecedented nuclear crisis.
    After the quake and tsunami struck, three reactors melted down and radiation spewed widely through northeastern Japan, forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate from near the plant.
    Since the disaster, high radiation levels have hampered the cleanup which is expected to take decades to complete.
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