GE Likely to Avoid Liability in Japan Nuke Crisis

[stockholmer]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42373545

"The Japanese nuclear crisis has created a public-relations headache for General Electric, but the company so far has escaped any legal fallout, and many experts expect it will continue to do so. GE designed the Mark 1 containment systems used in reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant, and after a magnitude 9 earthquake and a tsunami devastated northeast Japan on March 11, vessels intended to protect the reactors came under severe stress amidst explosions and fires and may have leaked radiation.

In the three weeks since the disaster, no lawsuits are known to have been filed against Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE either in Japan or in the United States. While GE could face lawsuits in the future, of course, any potential plaintiffs would have to overcome high hurdles, according to a wide array of legal experts, including nuclear law specialists and lawyers who represent plaintiffs and defendants in mass-tort litigation.

Japanese officials have not yet been able to assess the performance of GE's Mark 1 containment design. But critics have pointed to concerns raised more than 30 years ago by GE engineers and others about the design's durability. GE says the containment system has a "proven track record of safety and reliability for over 40 years" and that systems in use worldwide met international regulatory requirements when they were constructed. The Japanese reactors using the GE containment design were installed in the 1970s.

Even if GE's containment system failed, its liability in Japan appears limited. Japanese law channels liability for nuclear accidents to the plant operator, which must maintain 120 billion yen ($1.2 billion) of insurance per site to cover potential damages. If damages exceed that amount, the government is required to pick up the tab. If the government determines that the accident was caused by a "grave natural disaster of an exceptional character or by an insurrection," it assumes all liability........................."

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'If the law supposes that,' said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, 'the law is an ass — a idiot.

-----Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist)

[Old and In the Way]

1. This will be interesting.

"a grave, natural disaster? - certainly...but how much did poor siting of the back-up systems play? If the primary containment vessel withstood the earthquake and tsunami, but were done in by poorly designed/sited back-up power systems - who's fault is that?

[Wilms]

2. Likely to Avoid Liability, while their accountants try to use it as a write-off anyway.

:nuke:

[doc03]

3. Why is it Americans want to blame an American company for

a plant that they built to the specifications and standards in effect at the time. If anyone is to blame it is TEPCO and the Japanese government. Ge employs 133,000 in the USA and 154,000 in other countries, you want to loose those jobs too?

[truedelphi]

4. If you happen to have a friend who has lived in Fukushima -

And you happen to talk to them, you would find this out:

One) By 2005, the people of Fukushima were sick and tired of the badly designed and poorly performing GE reactors inside that prefecture.

Two) Being sick and tired of the situation, they peacefully voted out the old mayor (think governor) and voted in a new mayor, a Mr Sato.

Three) Knowing that the whole reason for his being elected was to get rid of the reactors, Mr Sato went about beginning to see that they could be decommissioned.

Four) and here is where it gets pretty sickening) Bush officials and GE executives heard about this. And not caring a bit about the "will of the people" they went over to Japan and saw to it that the
new mayor would be indicted for trumped up bribery charges. Mr Sato was thrown out of office, and Surprise Surprise Surprise - a mayor who favored nuke power was put in

Five) All was really really okay, if you overlooked the fear those in the know held as they thought about the situation - but those tinfoil hat wearers should be ignored, shouldn't they? After all, GE brings good things to life (Although unfortunately they have to kill a lot of people before they do it.)

So March 11th happened, and the rest is radioactive history.

[Armstead]

5. They're good at that....(See Hudson and Housatonic Rivers and PCB pollution)