International, Military, Torts

U.S. Sailors Sue Japanese Company Over Radiation Injuries Following The Fukushima Disaster

260px-Fukushima_I_by_Digital_Globe220px-ChopperDecon2011There is a little reported story about U.S. service members who have developed cancer and other illnesses after serving in the rescue efforts following the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. In an account that could have easily been written for the nuclear tests in the 1950s, service members have said that the Navy told them that there was no harm from radiation so long as they avoided the plume rising from the plant.


Both Quartermaster Maurice Enis and his fiancé (and fellow quartermaster) Jamie Plym came down with radiation illness after serving on the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan. Plym developed severe bronchitis and hemorrhaging while Enis developed lumps all over his body. Some 50 crew members on the Reagan and sister ship the USS Essex now trace illnesses including thyroid and testicular cancers, leukemia and brain tumors. They have filed a lawsuit against Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which allegedly delayed warnings about the radiation in the water. TEPCO officials have been repeatedly accused of lying or misrepresenting dangers since the disasters and have shown stunning incompetence in dealing with the continued contamination of the ocean water.

Because of the infamous Feres Doctrine, they cannot sue the military for negligence though the litigants insists it was TEPCO the actively withheld risk data to get them to work in dangerous areas.

53 thoughts on “U.S. Sailors Sue Japanese Company Over Radiation Injuries Following The Fukushima Disaster”

  1. Dan,

    Throw out the Price/Anderson Act in the US & we’ll all see together if the nuke Kook industry can stand on it’s own.

    And yes, I’m not a fan of the mountain top removal/SO2/Arsenic/Mercury poisoning from coal fired central command operated coal plants.

  2. Why does everyone fall for these scare stories over and over again? It seems that all you have to do is use the word ‘radiation’ and people are willing, even eager, the believe anything.

    As I said above, unless there were special circumstances then it is unlikely that any US personnel were exposed to more than negligible radiation. Hardly anyone at all was exposed to radiation that could potentially be harmful.

    Here’s a good article that explains how living near a coal power plant is more dangerous than having been in the Fukushima disaster.

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/16/nuclear-scare-stories-coal-industry

  3. I hope the Oky1 statement is unsubstantiated. I think that Fukishima cannot compare with nuclear testing in the sixties simply because we would already have a sick & dying planet worldwide if not for banning testing when it occured with Kruschev & with Kennedy. History shows it to have been in the nick of time. Keep taking your iodine & niacin.

  4. If we are talking US Navy, where is their responsibility in warning their men and giving them protective clothing? Of course, with only one body per lifetime I would not blame anyone from getting relief from anywhere available with that kind of tragedy. What about Israel? I’m still following the rumours but Netanyahu comes out of 3/11 smelling like Adolph Eichman.

    1. “If we are talking US Navy, where is their responsibility in warning their men and giving them protective clothing?”

      I thought force protection is always the responsibility of officers – what ever the mission.

      I am guessing that exposure to radiation of magnitude great enough to cause this kind of response was avoidable or could have been mitigated by protective measures.

      One of the first questions would be what CBW measures, to monitor radiation exposure, were in effect at the time missions were undertaken.

      If these individuals did encounter radiation enough to cause these problems then there is the possibility that contaminated equipment could still be in use, still causing problems.

      If radiation counter measures were taken, there could be strong evidence to explain clusters of disease.

      There are real question here. The fact that military personal have to obey orders does not imply that officers can issue any order or ignore what ever conditions they choose.

  6. OS,

    I have no doubt that all of the nuke planets in the US/world should be decommissioned & torn down right away. That’s the same opinion of many experts in energy field as well.

    I’m interested if you have asked you theoretical physicist friend what we are going to replace the US’s approximately 20% nuke produced electric with?

    It’s been awhile since I focused heavily on energy issues, but I believe the correct number is about a 1/3rd of Nuke energy is wasted in just getting the fuel out of the ground & refined for the plant.

    So that lost energy could be available for direct conversion of electric production, we’d then only be talking about a lose of 14% generation if nuke plants were shut down.

    I’m still promoting onsite generation & storage.

  7. People totally want to believe that someone is looking out for them and protecting them, if not god, then government, or a spouse. Always be skeptical that anyone is looking out for you.

  8. Fifty rather sudden cancers so soon in the wake of Fukishima certainly seems ’cause and effect’ like to me. And for the Navy to lie to those men certainly was an abuse of the powers of command.

  9. TEPCO: Not all pumped-in water reached overheating Fukushima reactors
    http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/analysis/AJ201312140030

    TEPCO said more than seven times the requisite volume of cooling water was pumped into the No. 2 reactor. But the water failed to cool it and the other reactors efficiently, and could not stop the core meltdowns in the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors.

    An examination of pipe diagrams and related equipment showed the pipes to the reactors had branches leading off to other areas and devices, such as condensation storage tanks. TEPCO concluded that too much of the pumped-in water leaked into those branches and never reached the reactors.

    TEPCO officials said they knew as early as late March 2011 about those leakage routes.

    “We should have shared the finding with the public in the belief it would help promote universal safety, but failed to do so,” said TEPCO Managing Executive Officer Takafumi Anegawa.

  10. Some species of humans are incapable of handling anything nuclear or what we used to call atomic. Any specie that is crooked is unfit for being in possession of an atomic 4 for example. As with any Pirate Territory we made a mistake of being there to help. Fly over and flush. This nuclear waste in the ocean will wash ashore at Pearl Harbor on December 7th each year. Some things never change.

  11. http://nypost.com/2013/12/22/70-navy-sailors-left-sickened-by-radiation-after-japan-rescue/

    At least 70 have been stricken with some form of radiation sickness, and of those, “at least half . . . are suffering from some form of cancer,” their lawyer, Paul Garner, told The Post Saturday.
    “We’re seeing leukemia, testicular cancer and unremitting gynecological bleeding requiring transfusions and other intervention,” said Garner, who is representing 51 crew members suing the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Fukushima Daiichi energy plant.
    “Then you have thyroid polyps, other thyroid diseases,” added Garner, who plans to file an amended lawsuit in federal court in San Diego next month that will bring the number of plaintiffs past 70.

  12. While that is a disturbing outcome and I wish the sailors well, Fukushima is a continuing disaster that is basically ignored by main stream corporate controlled media. Radiation continues to flow into the Pacific and currents transport the radiation to US/Canadian western shores. How this crisis is ignored by so many is remarkable and it could very well bare tragic consequences to animal and human life.

  13. Unless they can show special circumstances, it is very unlikely that they were exposed to high levels of radiation or that their illnesses were caused by the nuclear accident.

    By all means conduct a thorough investigation. But unless specific exposures can be demonstrated, these various illnesses were probably caused by their normal various other causes, not radiation.

  15. If it were I I would think there was probably more danger then just the plume given what we know about “nuclear winter” but would they have had any choice? If the military says go there can they say “I don’t think so” and refuse?

  17. Surprising that military members would be victims of this. I would have assumed that a military unit this size would have extensive radiation monitoring capability, and protective and decontamination gear.

    What ever the doctrine, it seems likely somebody blundered and should be held accountable.

    This is one situation were I would like to see a thorough investigation.

  19. I wonder if anyone will bring up the matter of how outraged the Japanese people were following the tragedy of fallout from the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test on Bikini in February 1954. That was the incident where the test went wrong due to miscalculations by the physicists, and there was a bigger plume than expected. Winds carried the fallout over the Japanese fishing vessel Daigo Fukuryū Maru (“Lucky Dragon No. 5”). The crew was sickened by radiation from the fallout, and one crew member died.

    That accident caused the US to change its policy on above ground testing. Wonder if the Japanese government will change its policy?

    http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Castle.html

  20. Treachery, Traitors be hanged! Unpardonable, maiming and murdering by authorities….

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