MITO -- A court on Wednesday dismissed a damages suit filed by an elderly couple who claimed that their exposure to radiation during a critical accident at a nuclear processing plant in 1999 damaged their health.

The Mito District Court rejected a 58 million yen damages claim filed by Shoichi Oizumi, 79, and his wife, Keiko, 68, from Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, against JCO and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., which were responsible for the critical accident at a nuclear fuel processing plant in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, in September 1999.

"It cannot be recognized that they developed their diseases as a result of being exposed to radiation," said Presiding Judge Hirofumi Shida in handing down the ruling. The plaintiffs are set to appeal the decision.

The plaintiffs claim they were exposed to radiation while they were at a car parts assembly factory that they were operating about 130 meters away from the nuclear fuel processing plant on Sept. 30, 1999 -- the day the nation's worst nuclear disaster took place since World War II.

The couple claimed that exposure to neutron radiation caused Shoichi Oizumi's skin disease and his diabetes to deteriorate and that Keiko suffered from diarrhea and mouth inflammation right after the accident and subsequently developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

However, the court ruled in favor of JCO and denied the causal relationship between the deterioration of their health and the nuclear accident.

"There is no proof that can verify that the exposure to radiation damaged their health. Since the diagnosis criteria has not been fulfilled, it cannot be acknowledged that the plaintiff (Keiko) developed PTSD (because of exposure to radiation)," the ruling said.

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