March 6, 2000 - According to
Kyodo News, the JCO Co. is expected to pay at
least $93 million in compensation claims from the
Sept. 30, 1999 nuclear accident at its facility
in Tokai.
Exposed Japanese worker dies
December 22, 1999
One of three JCO Co. workers exposed to massive
radiation in September in the nation's worst
nuclear accident died of organ failure at a Tokyo
hospital late Tuesday night, becoming the first
fatality of his kind in Japan.
Hisashi Ouchi, 35, was critically injured during
an accident Sept. 30 at the JCO uranium
processing plant in the village of Tokai, Ibaraki
Prefecture, where hundreds were forced to
evacuate or stay indoors as an uncontrolled chain
reaction spewed forth radiative particles.
The amount of energy that hit him is thought to
be equivalent to that at the hypocenter of the
Hiroshima atomic bombing. He died at 11:21 p.m.,
the Science and Technology Agency said.
His death, which comes 83 days after the incident
in Tokaimura, is expected to rekindle opposition
to Japan's controversial nuclear power program,
which has been tainted by a spate of accidents
and coverup scandals in recent years.
Ouchi is the second Japanese to die of acute
radiation-related injuries since 1954, when U.S.
fallout from thermonuclear testing in the Bikini
Atolls of the Marshall Islands claimed
40-year-old Aikichi Kuboyama, who was exposed on
the fishing boat Fukuryu-maru No. 5.
Tokai Mayor Tatsuo Murayama, however, portrayed
Ouchi as the "victim of the safety
myth" surrounding Japan's nuclear energy
program, now more than 40 years old.
Ouchi was part of a crew that had sidestepped
safety procedures and used a bucket to pour a
highly excessive amount of uranium into a
processing tank, triggering a self-sustained
nuclear chain reaction that neither he, his
company, nor the government had thought possible
at such a facility. It is suspected that their
actions were accepted, if not condoned.
In a matter of minutes, Ouchi had been exposed to
an estimated 17 sieverts of radiation, or about
17,000 times the maximum annual permissible
exposure level set by the Japanese government.
The accident effectively destroyed Ouchi's immune
system by sending his white blood cell count
plummeting to nearly zero.
As his condition worsened, the National Institute
of Radiological Sciences in Chiba, Chiba
Prefecture, transferred him to University of
Tokyo Hospital, where he reportedly underwent the
world's first transfusion of peripheral stem
cells on Oct. 6 and 7.
Doctors kept Ouchi alive by pumping huge amounts
of blood and fluids into him on a daily basis and
treating him with drugs normally unavailable in
Japan, indicating the high priority the
government placed on his survival, observers
said.
A group of top experts was assembled from Japan
and abroad to treat him, with some of the sources
saying they felt "silent pressure" from
no particular person or body to treat his quick
death as a matter of national dignity.
The accident also exposed at least 66 other
people to lesser amounts of radiation. Thousands
of people living near the plant were forced
indoors or evacuated.
Meanwhile, Ibaraki police said they plan to step
up their investigation into the criminal
liability of JCO and its parent company, Sumitomo
Metal Mining Co., for the accident.
Japan relies on atomic energy for about one-third
of its electricity.
From Japan Times Dec. 22,
1999. www.japantimes.com and AP reports
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