Nuclear accident in Fukushima: complaints about thyroid cancer

Eleven years after the Fukushima reactor disaster, several Japanese have filed suit against the nuclear power operator Tepco. They were minors in 2011 and now have thyroid cancer.

In March 2011, the earth trembled in Japan, and there were three core meltdowns in the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Chihiro was 15 years old at the time and didn’t live very far from the nuclear power plant. She does not want to give her real name for fear of discrimination.

In 2015 she noticed physical changes: “I suddenly had my period every two weeks, skin problems, had gained up to ten kilos in a month and could not swallow well.” A doctor diagnoses thyroid cancer. A gland needs to be removed.

4.7 million euros in compensation demanded

The student at the time began to investigate: “I then read that thyroid cancer is either caused by radioactive radiation or is genetic. But nobody in my family had this type of cancer and it came to me: I have cancer because of the accident in Fukushima.”

Together with five other sufferers, Chihiro is demanding the equivalent of 4.7 million euros in compensation from the nuclear power plant operator Tepco for the suffering and consequential damage.

Lawyer: “Evidence is stronger than theory”

A whole team of lawyers represents the plaintiffs – one of them is Kenjiro Kitamura. He is optimistic that a causal connection between the cancer and the reactor accident can be demonstrated.

“There’s a Japanese proverb that says evidence is stronger than theory,” says Kitamura. Thyroid cancer is usually very rare, in children there are one to two cases in a million. “But the numbers here are many times higher, that says it all.”

Scientists: “How much seeks, finds”

The head of the legal team, Kenichi Ido, had previously stated that because health damage was likely, the state should investigate this thoroughly and publish the data. The injured should be adequately compensated: “We need justice, and this lawsuit is the way to the goal.”

From a total of 380,000 children examined since 2011, 266 had thyroid cancer or at least the suspicion of it was found. Florian Gering from the Federal Office for Radiation Protection attributes this relatively high number primarily to the precise and intensive investigations in Japan. So: If you search a lot, you will find.

“However, there are many indications that the increased number of thyroid cancer cases that are now being discovered is due to the fact that many hundreds of thousands of children are being examined with the best possible equipment,” says Gering

Too early for a definitive diagnosis

In Chernobyl we saw that the younger the children, the higher the cancer rate, says the German scientist. But that was not the case in Fukushima.

The expert from the Federal Office for Radiation Protection does not deny that there is a connection between radiation and cancer. However, he believes that it is still too early for a definitive diagnosis.