Tokyo — A Tokyo court has ordered the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to pay $10m in fresh damages to residents who fled their homes after the disaster, the plaintiffs’ attorney said on Thursday. Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) was instructed to pay a total of ¥1.1bn to 318 former residents of the Odaka district in Fukushima, about 20km from the plant. The sum is a 10th of what the plaintiffs had demanded, citing the financial hardship and psychological impact they suffered after the March 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima that was triggered by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Tepco had already agreed to pay each of the plaintiffs ¥8.5m, but the ruling requires it to pay an additional ¥3.3m to each of those affected, according to Isamu Oki, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs. Residents are technically free to return to Odaka, which the government has certified as decontaminated, but only a few dozen have gone home because of financial and health concer...
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