TEPCO: Radioactive substances belong to landowners, not us

I couldn't believe this headline when I first saw it:

TEPCO: Radioactive substances belong to landowners, not us

During court proceedings concerning a radioactive golf course, Tokyo Electric Power Co. stunned lawyers by saying the utility was not responsible for decontamination because it no longer "owned" the radioactive substances. “Radioactive materials (such as cesium) that scattered and fell from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant belong to individual landowners there, not TEPCO,” the utility said.

“Radioactive materials (such as cesium) that scattered and fell from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant belong to individual landowners there, not TEPCO,” the utility said.

From my perspective that pretty much means TEPCO can send you a bow tied gift basket of radiation, and once it's on your property they're no longer responsible for it. This vaguely reminds me of BP trying to weasel their way out of clean up and compensation efforts on the Gulf Coast.

That argument did not sit well with the companies that own and operate the Sunfield Nihonmatsu Golf Club, just 45 kilometers west of the stricken TEPCO plant in Fukushima Prefecture.

The Tokyo District Court also rejected that idea.

But in a ruling described as inconsistent by lawyers, the court essentially freed TEPCO from responsibility for decontamination work, saying the cleanup efforts should be done by the central and local governments.

I'm very sad to see that the Japanese court system is just as screwed up as everyone else.

This will be passed on to the government who will pass the clean up costs to the average citizen. TEPCO and the government agencies who oversee these operations should be responsible and should already have some major contingency plans in action. All I see are crooked politicians and corporations trying to pass the buck.

Although the legal battle has moved to a higher court, observers said that if the district court’s decision stands and becomes a precedent, local governments' coffers could be drained.

The two golf companies in August filed for a provisional disposition with the Tokyo District Court, demanding TEPCO decontaminate the golf course and pay about 87 million yen ($1.13 million) for the upkeep costs over six months.

As usual, he with the most money wins. TEPCO is riding this one out until the city government runs out cash, pretty disturbing if you ask me.

TEPCO's argument over ownership of the radioactive substances drew a sharp response from lawyers representing the Sunfield Nihonmatsu Golf Club and owner Sunfield.

“It is common sense that worthless substances such as radioactive fallout would not belong to landowners,” one of the lawyers said. “We are flabbergasted at TEPCO’s argument.”

I would be way beyond flabbergasted, this was to be expected but it still angers me beyond words the rules allow me to type

The article goes on to explain a few things such as radiation levels in certain areas and reactions to this announcement. The Japanese people better do something about this because if they're already running out of money things are only going to get worse.

Good luck Japan, we're with you on this. Don't let these scumbags avoid responsibility for their actions.

Japan is much more screwed up than most people realize.

They have a national tendency to ignore problems, and the Corp's know the people won't raise much of a fuss.

so what they're basicaly saying is that if would to park my car on their parking lot, they own it because it's on their ground

i can't believe my eyes when i read articles like this, sad state of the world we're in

i've got no words for this..except..

scotty!! when the F are you going to beam me up?

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Who would have thunk that a large company would try and get out of their responsibilities by claiming such nonsense? So perhaps we can have aradioactive leak anywhere in the world now and they are not responsible for clearing it up, but whoever owns the land that the fallout falls on is responsible, excellent, glad we cleared that up.

going back too sleep now, this world is koofed up big time.

reply to post by AGWskeptic


I still think of Japan a strong nation, it's just they have crooked people at the very top just like most countries.

I think the whole world should be stepping in more than they already have. This mess is going to affect us all, not just Japan. Pretty soon it's going to be too late if they don't find a way to completely contain those reactors.

Well then . . . I would strongly recommend the good folks within a 200 kilometre radius have an all-you-can-eat Beer-n-Taco-n-Cabbage Salad Night then head on down to the old Tepco head office and colletively take a massive dump in the Tepco head office.

Then they can announce to the Tepco folks that since it's already passed Mr. Sphincter they no longer own the steaming mound digested tacos, beer and cabage salad, it ain't much of their problem.

When the good folks at Tepco have a stroke, just give them a copy of their own (most likely bought and paid for) court case and say Precedence

Just an idea.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


soon forgot what the us did at bikini atoll Nagasaki and Hiroshima oh and of course don't forget bhopal in India, and the tar sands , oh and don't forget tar creek, and then there where them reports this yr about us reactors leaking radio-active material into the ground water, do we need to go on lmao other countries should sort there own problems out before interfering in other countries business just a thought mind, but yeah pretty sick of tepco

reply to post by GoalPoster

Just an idea.

and a great one at that!
would star this more if i could.

thanks for the laugh

reply to post by GoalPoster

Beer-n-Taco-n-Cabbage Salad Night

Where do I sign up?

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Excellent points, man! S&F for you.

Whatever micron of credibility TEPCO had left, it's gone. You can bet that they just committed the ultimate stupidity- the Japanese people are going to be furious when word of this gets out. But is it not par for the course with arrogant elites who love to reside above their very own laws?

This insanity will call into question virtually everything they have put out about the radiation in Japan and the world. Japan, and the world, will never ever trust them again, and that company should be dismantled from the top down. They are no better than the flotilla of tsunami debris headed our way.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


I really hope this news goes viral in Japan. Their government has lied to them since the very beginning and they have every reason to really upset. I'm still coming across news of concentrated amounts of radiation in various areas almost every single day. Many of these places are areas that were said to be out of reach.

Now they want to add insult to injury and claim it's not their responsibility. These people should be thrown in jail.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Unfortunately the chronic apathy in Japan is not unique to their region only, it's global, for the western world anyway.

But my problem with Japan is the outright lying they do on a daily basis. Tokyo police boast a 90% conviction rate for murders. But what they don't tell the outside world is that they only classify deaths as murders if they already have a strong suspect. The rest get reclassified into categories like "abandoned body", I shyte you not. The low crime rate is a myth, organized crime is pervasive in their culture.

What the rest has always assumed is Japanese stoicism, is actually just plain old apathy.

Something that's being overlooked here:

This isn't about cleanup cost. If TEPCO can bail on ownership and responsibility here, it gives them a defense against all of the people that will die from this and their calls for retribution, which will come.

If they don't own it, they can't be held responsible for what it does to people.

There was an old episode on "The People's Court" where a man spray painted a house, and the overspray drifted across the property line and ended up collecting on a neighbor's car.

The outcome of the People's court case is that the spray painter was indeed responsible for the airborne material that originated from his activity, and ended up on his neighbor's property. As I recall the judge said something to the effect that if he couldn't guarantee his spray panting wouldn't have an adverse effect on the neighbor's property, he should have painted with brushes and rollers instead.

To me the similarity in the two cases seems striking except for the country where it happened and the amount of damage. But clearly the US based court ruled that indeed the originator of the airborne material was responsible for damages they caused.

In the case of Japan, even if the courts had found TEPCO liable, it would still be the government who ended up paying because TEPCO would be insolvent as a result, so the government will likely have to pay for cleanup no matter which way they decided. But I think it would be better if Japan let TEPCO go insolvent sold its assets to buyers in a liquidation sale with new owners and new management.

The reason for this is the same reason we have major problems with the wall street bailout. Companies take huge risks like the banks did with mortgage derivatives, or like TEPCO did by ignoring the advice of its own scientists about what would happen in Fukushima when the battery backups were insufficient after a tsunami hit. The gains of these risky decisions were privatized, but the losses are being socialized.

This is NOT the way to incentivize companies to make the right decisions, rather, this kind of action by government will foster more stupid decision-making on the part of private companies if they think they can privatize the gains and socialize the losses for making risky decisions. TEPCO should have taken action to prevent this disaster when its own scientists warned them about it, but they didn't, and decisions like this one seem to indicate they are not having to pay a high enough price for their bad decision making.

Originally posted by captaintyinknots
Something that's being overlooked here:

This isn't about cleanup cost. If TEPCO can bail on ownership and responsibility here, it gives them a defense against all of the people that will die from this and their calls for retribution, which will come.

It may be about health care costs also, but I disagree it's not about cleanup cost. It may be about both.

How farcical these companies are in there expressions of concern for environmental issues. How much of the earth has to become uninhabitable before we take action?

Thanks for the information just more evidence for the pile to be ignored by the populace.