NH #314: Fukushima Radiation-Hit USS Reagan Sailors Win Right to Sue TEPCO in USA

Encore Presentation of Nuclear Hotseat #272:
EXCLUSIVE! USS Reagan vs. TEPCO Hearing
Attorneys, Sailors + John Edwards

On September 1, 2016, Nuclear Hotseat Producer/Host Libbe HaLevy attended the US 9th District Court Hearing on USS Reagan Sailors v. Tokyo Electric Power Company.  The sailors were on an humanitarian aid mission to Japan following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which caused the Fukushima Daiichi triple meltdowns.  TEPCO never informed the US Navy of the dangerous release of radioactivity from the crippled nuclear reactors and as a result, the sailors were exposed to catastrophic levels of radiation.  At stake in this hearing: the right for the already ill sailors to have their case heard in U.S. court, not Japan.* 
(NOTE:  The ruling handed own just this week will allow the case to proceed in the United States court system.  This program lets you glimpse what it took to get here.)

Hear excepts from the testimony and exclusive interviews with:

• Attorneys for the sailors Charles Bonner and Paul C. Carlson Garner
• Sailors from the USS Reagan:  William Zeller, Chad Holt and Chris Shamrell.
• Former US Senator and Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards, who reveals a bombshell: why he flew out to attend this hearing and has become so public in his support for the sailors.

David v. Goliath?  Count on it!

(l-r: Attorney Paul C. Garner, [3 USS Reagan sailors], Nuclear Hotseat Producer/Host Libbe HaLevy

 Video of full hearing of lawsuit HERE:

Numnutz of the Week:

Czech it out!  The main qualification required for a two-week internship at the Czech Republic’s Temlin nuclear power plant is how good you look in a “bikini” (which is really just a modest two-piece bathing suit).

The Missing Links:
(Live links to all the Nuclear Hotseat/USS Reagan episodes coming…)

• Nuclear Hotseat #96 – USS Reagan Sailors at Dr. Helen Caldicott’s Symposium
• Nuclear Hotseat #129 – Interview w/Attorney Charles Bonner
• Nuclear Hotset #138 – Interview w/Attorney Charles Bonner
• Nuclear Hotseat #159 – Interview w/USS Reagan sailor Steve  Simmons
• Nuclear Hotseat #162 – Steve Simmons and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano refute TEPCO claims
• Nuclear Hotseat #166 – USS Reagan sailors v. TEPCO
• Nuclear Hotseat #173 – Yokuska Homeporting of USS Reagan and Unresolved Radiation Issues w/Carole Jahnkow
• Nuclear Hotseat #176 – USS Reagan Case Win!
• Nuclear Hotseat #180 – Internal v. External Radiation Risks for USS Reagan Sailors

Featured image: The judges of the U.S. 9th District Court of Appeals in upper image; attorney Cabral Bonner (standing) and Charles Bonner (seated) in lower image