Company found liable in suicide case

People wearing protective suits and masks ride on a bus past the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in Okuma, Japan, on Saturday, November 12 2012. Journalists got their first ground-level glance around the stricken facility, eying shells of reactor buildings, tons of contaminated water, and workers still scurrying to mitigate damage from a crisis that began eight months ago.

The crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station is seen through a bus window in Okuma on Saturday. An epic 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami March 11 wreaked havoc around Japan, killing more than 15,000 people. While many of those died instantly, the East Asian nation was on edge for weeks as utility and government employees scrambled to prevent a worsening nuclear catastrophe at the Daiichi plant, located about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Tokyo.

A deserted street near Okuma is visible from the bus window, inside the contaminated exclusion zone near the crippled nuclear power station.

Throughout the summer and fall, there were no longer reports of explosions or new leaks of radioactive material into the ground and sea. But the facility still remained off limits to reporters and, for a 20-kilometer radius around the plant, to the general public, due to the continued high levels of radiation and ongoing efforts to prevent yet more blasts and leaks.

Radiation readings rose steadily as the journalists neared the plant, reaching 6.7 microsieverts in Okuma. There, they put on respirator masks, adding to an ensemble of a protective suit, two pairs of gloves, two sets of plastic booties over their shoes and a radiation detector.

The crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station is visible through a bus window Saturday.

Journalists pass a newly built sea wall next to the crippled nuclear power station.

Workers dressed in protective suits and masks are checked for radiation outside a building at J-Village, a soccer training complex now serving as an operation base for those battling Japan's nuclear disaster in Fukushima.

A employee of the Tokyo Electric Power Company walks up stairs near temporary housing built for workers who live at J-Village, at the former soccer training complex.

A worker carries his belongings as he walks among the temporary housing structures at J-Village.

A deserted field and buildings inside the contaminated exclusion zone around the crippled nuclear power station are seen through the bus window.

A deserted neighborhood inside the contaminated exclusion zone is visible through the bus window.

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• TEPCO ordered to pay out in suicide case linked to Fukushima


• Woman set herself on fire four months after Fukushima disaster


• Fukushima government releases data showing more cases of thyroid cancer

Tokyo, Japan (CNN) -- Four years after the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, questions about the lingering physical and mental health toll of the disaster persist.

The Fukushima District Court ruled Tuesday in favor of a family who filed a landmark lawsuit blaming Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant operator of the crippled nuclear reactor, for the suicide of a woman in 2011.

Four months after three reactors melted down at the Fukushima plant following a devastating earthquake and tsunami, Hamako Watanabe and her husband lost their home, their jobs and the prospect of restoring their lives.

Life in Fukushima after nuclear disaster

See inside Japan's damaged nuclear plant

She doused herself in kerosene and set herself on fire after slipping into depression. Her husband, Mikio Watanabe, found her charred body.

Emotional toll of the tsunami

"We lost everything," her widower told CNN in 2012. "We were forced to evacuate. We lost our jobs. I lost my wife in such a terrible way. I really lost everything."

The Fukushima District Court ordered TEPCO to pay 49 million yen ($471,063 U.S.) to her family, in a ruling that found a link between the nuclear accident and Watanabe's death.

"It is well assumed that the stress caused by sudden loss of the base of her life against her will and unknown future in evacuation was unbearable for her," according to the court ruling.

A spokeswoman of TEPCO Mayumi Yoshida said: "We express deep condolence for the loss for Mrs. Hamako Watanabe. We will examine the ruling closely and continue to deal with it sincerely."

Fukushima residents cleared to return

Thyroid cancer cases monitored

In the wake of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986, the local government began monitoring the health of residents who were under the age of 18 at the time of the March, 2011 incident.

The Fukushima Prefectural Government found more cases of thyroid cancer, with 57 people confirmed cases and 46 others listed as possible cases, according to data released this week.

The risk of thyroid cancer increases in people who've been exposed to high doses of radiation. Children are more sensitive to radiation and at risk for a longer period of time than adults, according to medical literature on thyroid cancer.

Inside Fukushima's 'red zone'

The ripple effects of a modern flood

The cancer rate -- 57 out of 296,026 -- is high compared to known international statistics, but it's difficult to link the nuclear accident to the rates of pediatric thyroid cancer, according to the Fukushima prefecture's health office.

The high rate may be attributed to the thorough method of testing for thyroid cancer, according to the office.

Hisakatsu Kotani, from the Fukushima prefectural government's health research section, said there were no patterns detected between the cases of thyroid cancers and high radiation areas.

"Experts have been saying this is not the time yet to see any health impact by the accident," he said.

In the case of Chernobyl, thyroid cancer cases in children reached a peak about 10 years after exposure, according to a report analyzing radiation exposure and the risk of pediatric thyroid cancers.

A scientific review published in 2011, found that pediatric thyroid cancers only account for 0.5 to 3% of all types of cancers. That review also found that girls have four times higher frequency for pediatric thyroid cancer than boys.

Of the 104 people who were diagnosed with potentially cancerous tumors at Fukushima, 68 were females and 36 were males. More than half of them, 58, had surgery to remove the growth.

Inside Fukushima Daiichi: Visiting one of the most dangerous places on earth