Dozens of crewmembers of the USS Ronald Reagan say they are suffering from a variety of cancers as a direct result of exposure to the initial stages of the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power Plant in March 2011. 

51-sailors are plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), alleging that the utility mishandled the nuclear crisis and did not adequately warn the Americans of the risk of participating in the earthquake relief efforts. 

Last week, the man who was Japan’s Prime Minister at the time of the disaster, Naoto Kan, said that the first meltdown happened within five hours of the earthquake and tsunami – just when the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was dispatched to the Pacific Ocean off of Japan’s northeast coast to take part in the Operation Tomodachi rescue and recovery efforts.

Many of the Reagan’s crewmembers are young guys, still in their twenties.  Their lawyer Charles Bonner says the 51 are suffering from conditions including thyroid cancer, testicular cancer, brain cancer, leukemia, and unexplained bleeding.

The US Department of Defense claims the Navy took “proactive measures” in order to “mitigate the levels of Fukushima-related contamination on U.S. Navy ships and aircraft”, and that crewmembers were not exposed to dangerous radiation levels.