A total of 79 US sailors have sought legal action against Tokyo Electric Power for misleading the crew about the radiation levels of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. The sailors had served on the USS Ronald Reagan, a San Diego-based aircraft carrier which was ferrying food and water to Sendai as part of a humanitarian mission following the massive earthquake that had triggered the tsunami. The sailors are seeking $1 billion from the Tokyo utility company, The Associated Press said in a report.

According to the lawsuit that was filed in a San Diego federal court, Tepco had assured the US sailors multiple times that there is no danger when in actuality, they were blanketed with radiation, the Orange County Register had said on Monday. The radiation at Fukushima reportedly led to dozens of cases wherein individuals had cancers, and with one child who had been born with birth defects, the local newspaper added.

AP said that this was not the first time the sailors had sued in relation to their alleged exposure to radiation levels at the Tokyo plant. In 2012, the sailors filed a suit against the Japanese government, who owns Tepco. A judge later declared that the lawsuit was beyond the reach of a US court, Orange County Register have said.

Tepco has filed a motion for the court to reject the lawsuit, AP said. The Tokyo utility company had argued that the US commanders of the USS Ronald Reagan could not just relied on its information to determine its sailors' safety. Tepco said in its response, "It's wholly implausible," the company says in its response, "that military commanders in charge of thousands of personnel and armed with some of the world's most sophisticated equipment, relied instead only on the press releases and public statements of a foreign electric utility company."