Former TEPCO bosses indicted over Fukushima meltdown

By Yoko Wakatsuki and Euan McKirdy, CNN

Updated 1:29 AM ET, Mon February 29, 2016

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A TEPCO employee walks past the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on February 10, 2016. Next month, Japan will mark the fifth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, when an earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11, 2011, leaving more than 15,000 people dead.
Photos: Inside Fukushima: Cleanup underway, 5 years on
A TEPCO employee walks past the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on February 10, 2016. Next month, Japan will mark the fifth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, when an earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11, 2011, leaving more than 15,000 people dead.
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TEPCO employees, in blue protective suits, brief a press group in front of storage tanks for radioactive water on Februray 10.
Photos: Inside Fukushima: Cleanup underway, 5 years on
TEPCO employees, in blue protective suits, brief a press group in front of storage tanks for radioactive water on Februray 10.
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A member of the tour group, donning a protective suit and a mask, takes a look at the crippled No. 3 reactor on February 10.
Photos: Inside Fukushima: Cleanup underway, 5 years on
A member of the tour group, donning a protective suit and a mask, takes a look at the crippled No. 3 reactor on February 10.
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A TEPCO employee measures a radiation level of 213 microsieverts per hour in front of the No. 2, left, and No. 3 reactor buildings on February 10.
Photos: Inside Fukushima: Cleanup underway, 5 years on
A TEPCO employee measures a radiation level of 213 microsieverts per hour in front of the No. 2, left, and No. 3 reactor buildings on February 10.
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A worker approaches the No. 3 reactor on February 10.
Photos: Inside Fukushima: Cleanup underway, 5 years on
A worker approaches the No. 3 reactor on February 10.
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A worker levels out the ground at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on February 10.
Photos: Inside Fukushima: Cleanup underway, 5 years on
A worker levels out the ground at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on February 10.
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Workers, wearing protective suits and masks, stand near the No. 3 and No. 4 reactor buildings on February 10.
Photos: Inside Fukushima: Cleanup underway, 5 years on
Workers, wearing protective suits and masks, stand near the No. 3 and No. 4 reactor buildings on February 10.
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Story highlights

  • Former chairman, VPs indicted by Tokyo court for their role in 2011 meltdown
  • Fukushima residents had previously tried twice to hold the executives to account.

Tokyo (CNN)The former CEO of TEPCO, along with two other executives, have been indicted by a Japanese court facing charges relating to the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

Former Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, along with two former executive vice presidents, Ichiro Takekuro and Sakae Muto, were indicted for professional negligence to the Tokyo district court.
The accident, which occurred when a tsunami hit the coastal plant in March 2011, caused a meltdown and widespread radiation leaks in the northeastern Japanese province.
    Acting prosecutors -- lawyers chosen by the prosecution commission -- allege that the three had not fulfilled their responsibility to prevent the accident, which resulted in the exposure of Fukushima residents to radiation, the injury of 13 workers at the plant, and the death of 44 patients, evacuated from the immediate vicinity of the plant to hospitals in surrounding areas.
    It is claimed by the prosecutors that the patients' deaths, who were elderly or gravely ill, were linked to their move in the immediate aftermath of the meltdown as they were evacuated, but that connection has not been formally confirmed.
    Read More
    TEPCO: Fukushima meltdown announcement made months late
    People wearing protective suits and masks ride on a bus past the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in Okuma, Japan, on Saturday, November 12 2012. Journalists got their first ground-level glance around the stricken facility, eying shells of reactor buildings, tons of contaminated water, and workers still scurrying to mitigate damage from a crisis that began eight months ago.