Saturday, Dec 29, 2012 | Updated 4:15 AM PST
Getty Images
(File
Photo 2011) Sailors scrubbed the external surfaces on the flight deck
and island superstructure to remove potential radiation contamination.
USS Ronald Reagan is operating off the coast of Japan providing
humanitarian assistance as directed in support of Operation Tomodachi. A
9.0 magnitude strong earthquake struck offshore on March 11 at 2:46pm
local time, triggering a tsunami wave of up to ten meters which engulfed
large parts of north-eastern Japan, and also damaging the Fukushima
nuclear plant and threatening a nuclear catastrophe. The death toll
continues to rise with numbers of dead and missing exceeding 20,000 in a
tragedy not seen since World War II in Japan.
Eight U.S. sailors are suing the Tokyo utility that
operates the Fukushima nuclear power plant, charging that the company
lied about the high level of radiation in the area where they were carrying out a humanitarian mission after the tsunami that triggered the reactor crisis.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S.
District Court in San Diego last week against Tokyo Electric Power Co.,
which is owned by the Japanese government. Plaintiffs include the infant
daughter of two of the sailors who was born seven months after the
March 2011 disaster.
The sailors served on the San Diego-based aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan,
which was carrying out "Operation Tomadachi" ferrying food and water to
citizens in the city of Sendai in the wake of the earthquake and
tsunami.
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