Radiation lawsuit dismissed; lawyers to refile

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by U.S. sailors who were exposed to dangerous radiation following the March 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

San Diego Federal Judge Janis L. Sammartino late last month dismissed the lawsuit, filed by U.S. military personnel from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan in December 2012, ruling it was beyond her authority to determine whether the Japanese government committed fraud against the U.S. military, the U-T San Diego reported Wednesday.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, was listed as the defendant in the case. The lawsuit alleged the power company lied about how much radiation had leaked from the plant after it was damaged by the earthquake and tsunami.

The sailors said the Japanese government then used the figures released by Tepco and the U.S. Navy used those reports when calculating the safety of U.S. sailors in its relief effort.

Meanwhile, more than 50 crewmembers of the USS Ronald Reagan have joined the lawsuit, which lawyers say they plan to refile, Fox News reported.

"They went in to help with rescue efforts," said San Francisco Attorney Charles Bonner who is representing the sailors. "They did not go in prepared to deal with radiation containment."

The sailors are suffering from a number of alleged radiation-related health issues, including thyroid and testicular cancers, leukemia and brain tumors.

"I get so angry," sailor and plaintiff Jamie Plym said. "They said as long as the plume was avoided we would be fine. But we knew then that something was going to happen. Common sense tells you that the wind would blow it everywhere. You don't need to be a nuclear scientist to figure that out."