Subject: [cwj 99] JCO/Sumitomo Metal Mining To Pay $121M in Compensation
From: Corporate Watch in Japanese <cwj@corpwatch.org>
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 11:07:33 -0700
Seq: 99
Monday September 4 8:44 AM ET JCO To Pay $121M in Compensation TOKYO (AP) - JCO Co., a uranium-processing firm, said Monday it has agreed to pay a total of $121 million in compensation to settle 6,875 cases stemming from Japan's worst nuclear accident. JCO spokesman Katsunori Suzuki said it has yet to settle about 150 other cases involving the Sept. 30, 1999 accident. He declined to disclose the total amount sought in the unsettled claims. In addition to people exposed to radiation, the compensation covers losses suffered by farms, fisheries and service industries, Suzuki said. He said the settlement came after negotiations with individuals, groups and companies over the past eight months. ``We will continue to negotiate with the people concerned, but it will take quite a long time,'' he said. The accident at the JCO Co. uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, 70 miles northeast of Tokyo, killed two workers and exposed hundreds of people working and living in the area to radiation. Workers violated safety regulations by mixing nitric acid and enriched uranium in buckets, setting off an uncontrolled atomic reaction that took hours to bring under control. Suzuki said JCO will use $9.5 million in insurance plus funds from its parent company, Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., to pay the compensation. FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Corporate Watch in Japanese is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability, human rights, economic democracy and social justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. ------------------------------------- Corporate Watch in Japanese Transnational Resource and Action Center (TRAC) P.O. Box 29344 San Francisco, CA 94129 USA Tel: 1-415-561-6472 Fax: 1-415-561-6493 Email: cwj@corpwatch.org URL: http://www.corpwatch-jp.org ------------------------------------- ______________________ The Corporate Watch in Japanese http://www.corpwatch.org/japan (CWJ) mailing list is a moderated email list in English designed to connect activists campaigning against Japanese corporations and investments around the world. * To unsubscribe from the CWJ mailing list, send an email to majordomo@jca.apc.org with text "unsubscribe cwj". To subscribe to the CWJ mailing list, send a message to majordomo@jca.apc.org with the text "subscribe cwj" * The CWJ mailing list is NOT intended for wide distribution. If you would like to post messages from this list somewhere else, we ask that you first contact us at cwj@corpwatch.org ______________________