Japan Nuclear Accident
Dateline: 10/02/99Japan's worst nuclear accident, occurring at a uranium processing plant run by JCO Co., a subsidiary of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., has left three workers hospitalized in serious condition. This company is located in Tokai-mura, Ibaraki prefecture. A primary school, kindergarten, houses and shops are located nearby. It is near Mito-city, Ibaraki and is about 70 miles northeast of Tokyo.
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The series of nuclear chain reactions at the plant began in the morning of September 30th, Thursday in Japan. In the afternoon, it was reported that the radiation level outside the JCO was about 4,000 times that of normal levels. After the accident, police sealed off a 200m area around the facility. The government ordered the evacuation of 160 people within a 350-yard radius of the facility and advised nearly 310,000 people living within six miles to stay indoors and keep their windows closed. Schools were shut down and traffic was banned in a 3km radius around the accident.
Train services were suspended in some areas. Japan Railway (JR) East Co suspended service between Mito and Hitachi. JR Joban Line reduced services between Toride and Tsuchiura and between Tsuchiura and Mito. Also, traffic was stopped on the Joban express highway near the Tokai interchange Thursday night.
The accident occured during the production of nuclear fuel for an experimental fast breeder reactor in Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture. According to JCO spokesman Yutaka Tatsuta, the procedure involved producing a total of 57 kilograms of fuel from a compound that included 18.9 percent uranium. The company found that three workers skipped a step in the procedure, failing to pour the solution into a "containing tower" to let it settle. Instead, they poured it directly into a tank meant for a later stage in the process, causing the chain reaction to begin.
On Friday, workers at the JCO facility stopped the flow of radiation leaking from the site by breaking a pipe to drain water from around the tank, and the government announced it was safe for people in the area to leave their homes. "We have decided the residents will be able to continue with their daily lives," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said. "Nuclear fission reactions at the plant have been suspended and monitors observing radioactivity nearby have revealed that radiation levels have returned to normal."
Train services returned to normal and shops reopened in the area around Tokai-mura after the government's announcement Friday afternoon. But, until the situation has been fully evaluated, it might be smart for travelers to avoid or bypass the area. Doctors cannot say what the long-term health risks of exposure to even low levels of radiation in the Takai-mura accident will be. Thousands of people are now being tested for radiation exposure. So far, it is confirmed that at least 50 people have been exposed to radiation, including workers of the plant and firefighters. According to officials, the residential areas farther from the facility received doses of radiation just slightly above natural levels.
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