Prosecutors to take nuke crisis complaints

Prosecutors are taking complaints against Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the government over the Tepco's Fukushima nuclear plant disaster, officials said. Officials said about 20 complaints already have been submitted to district prosecutors across the country, but prosecutors haven't addressed them yet because they don't want to impact public and private investigations into the crisis the occurred in the wake of last year's earthquake and tsunami, Yomiuri Shimbun reported Wednesday. Since government offices, the country's parliament and Tepco, as well as a private investigative commission, have released their reports, sources told the newspaper prosecutors were preparing to start accepting criminal complaints related to the March 2011 nuclear accident. In June, about 1,300 residents of Fukushima prefecture filed a complaint against 33 people, including former Tepco executives and a one-time chief of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, alleging negligence resulting in death or injury, and violation of environmental pollution laws. Legal observers told the Yomiuri Shimbun prosecutors will have difficulty building criminal cases. Among other things, they said establishing the professional negligence resulting in death or injury requires proof that the cause of the injury -- in this case the release of radioactive materials -- was predictable and the entities involved were obliged to act to avoid an accident. Masaru Wakasa, formerly with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, said, "Even if prosecutors decide not to indict [Tepco or the government], residents could still file a complaint with a prosecution inquest committee." "Prosecutors should quickly investigate the cases so the statute of limitations doesn't run out," Wakasa said.