General Electric sued on Fukushima disaster

This video says about itself:

Ex-GE Engineer Highlights Critical Fukushima Reactor Design Flaw

8 March 2013

In 1971, General Electric designed, built and delivered the first, now-exploded, Mark 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and that design was also used for four of the other five reactors.

Whistleblower Dale Bridenbaugh, a former engineer for GE, exposed a critical flaw in the reactor design that was so bad, he recommended all Mark 1 reactors be shut down to repair them. This didn’t happen. Then, as now, profits and protection of nuclear business were put ahead of safety and the protection of people.

From the Boston Globe in the USA:

GE faces lawsuit over role in Fukushima nuclear disaster

By Jon Chesto/Globe Staff

November 18, 2017

A group of Japanese businesses and doctors sued General Electric Co. in Boston federal court on Friday, claiming the industrial giant was reckless and negligent in its design of the reactors and related systems at the core of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.

The plaintiffs claim Boston-based GE knowingly used a reactor design at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that would fail to protect against the possible threat of earthquakes and tsunamis, a natural risk in that area.

The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status for businesses in the area that suffered economic damage as a result of the disaster, which displaced as many as 150,000 people.

Among other things, the lawsuit claims GE and its partners lowered a protective cliff by more than 60 feet, placing the plant and all six of its GE-designed reactors closer to the Pacific Ocean and in the path of the severe tsunami that struck on March 11, 2011.

Afte the tsunami hit, three GE-designed reactors suffered from “entirely foreseeable flooding and resulting nuclear meltdowns”, causing the release of radioactive matter into the area surrounding the plant, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs are essentially blaming GE for defective reactor design as well as for not putting in place enough safeguards to prevent the spread of radiation once the Fukushima plant was breached.

Six years after Fukushima, robots finally find reactors’ melted uranium fuel — The New York Times: here.

Fears of another Fukushima as Tepco plans to restart world’s biggest nuclear plant — The Guardian: here.