The Latest on the trial of three Japanese utility executives for the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster (all times local) :
TOKYO (AP) – The Latest on the trial of three Japanese utility executives for the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster (all times local) :
3: 45 p.m.
Defense attorneys for three former Tokyo Electric Power Co. executives say that experts were divided about a tsunami estimate made before the 2011 disaster that decimated the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
The ex-TEPCO chairman and two former vice presidents are charged with professional negligence for not taking sufficient preventive measures before the tsunami.
Their trial got underway Friday in district court in Tokyo.
The prosecution started presenting more than 230 pieces of evidence including emails between safety officials and the two vice presidents suggesting increasing concern and the need to take additional tsunami measures at the Fukushima plant.
The defense said the damage to the nuclear plant was much larger than predicted by the estimate, so any steps taken based on the estimate would not have prevented the disaster.
