More reactions feared at Japan plant
Nuclear accident 'unprecedented' for Japan; 2 workers critical
MSNBC News Services TOKYO, Sept. 30 - A nuclear accident at a Japanese uranium processing plant on Thursday might have triggered "abnormal reactions" that could be continuing at the plant, Japan's top government spokesman said. Japan is considering requesting emergency technical help from the United States for the accident, which left two workers in critical condition, prompted local evacuations and renewed a national debate on Japan's use of nuclear energy. Japan has 51 commercial nuclear power reactors that provide one-third of the country's electricity.
"THERE IS A strong possibility that abnormal reactions are continuing within the facility," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka told an emergency news conference. "We believe that it is a severe situation, and there are concerns about radiation in the surrounding areas."
NEARBY RESIDENTS WARNED
Nearly 12 hours after the accident, officials widened the area of concern, warning residents within a six-mile radius to stay indoors.
The accident is "unprecedented" for Japan, he added, and officials said no previous Japanese accident had left workers so seriously injured.
Nonaka said Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force's chemical warfare unit was ready to be deployed at the accident site but that it lacked relevant experience. Government sources later said that as a result Japan would be asking the U.S. military for technical help.
Asked about his remarks earlier in the day that the situation appeared to be under control, Nonaka said the measurements of radioactivity had been low but started to rise.
Nonaka added that there might have been a "criticality incident" at the plant, located in Tokai, about 90 miles northeast of Tokyo.
Criticality is the point at which a nuclear chain reaction becomes self-sustaining, similar to what occurs inside a nuclear reactor.
TOO MUCH URANIUM
A nuclear reaction apparently occurred when the workers added too much uranium to a tank for processing into fuel for nuclear power plants, said Makoto Ujihara, head of the Tokyo office of JCO Co., the private company that operates the plant. Company officials said they thought that while radioactivity was released into the atmosphere, the radioactive material itself remained contained.
And JCO President Koji Kitani, bowing deeply at a news conference in Tokyo, said "a major accident resulting in a radioactive leak has happened. We apologize from the bottom of our hearts."
Toshio Okazaki, vice minister at the Science and Technology Agency, said radiation levels around the plant had jumped to 4,000 times higher than normal immediately after the accident.
A local government official said levels were even higher, at 10,000 times above normal around the leak. About a mile from the accident, Tatsuo Shimada added, radiation levels were about 10 times normal.
BLUE FLASH SEEN
Ujihara said the workers had seen a blue flash - said by experts to be a sign of a "criticality incident" - and then began to feel ill shortly after the accident around 10:35 a.m. local time.
Officials at Tokaimura immediately advised some 50 households living within 1,150 feet of the plant to evacuate and others were advised in radio broadcasts to stay home. Schools were told to keep children inside and windows closed.
Three workers who had been handling the uranium were taken to a specialized hospital. Two were in critical condition, and in a state of shock with fever and diarrhea. All three had an unusually high white blood cell count.
"Judging from the symptoms," a doctor later told reporters, "they appeared to have received quite a substantial amount of radiation and we will need to keep a close eye on their conditions."
TOWN HOUSES NUCLEAR COMPLEX
Tokai, with a population of around 33,802 people, is home to 15 nuclear-related facilities and was the scene of Japan's worst nuclear plant accident in which 35 workers suffered radiation contamination in 1997.
In that accident at a nuclear reprocessing plant, a fire that caused radiation to escape was not extinguished properly and caused an explosion hours later.
Some radiation leaked from the plant but at levels far below that which would pose a hazard to the public, officials said at the time.
More recently, cooling water with a radiation level of 11,500 times the maximum permissible limit leaked from a commercial nuclear reactor on the Sea of Japan coast in July this year.
Nobody was injured in that incident.
INVESTIGATION, REACTION
The government, besides postponing a Cabinet reshuffle, set up a task force of top ministers to investigate the accident - the first time such a step has been taken in Japan for a nuclear accident. It also sent specialists to the area to monitor the radioactivity. Japan has 51 commercial nuclear power reactors that provide one-third of the country's electricity. That relatively high level of nuclear use has made Japan a magnet for anti-nuclear activists. Greenpeace said Thursday's accident "confirms our fears. The entire safety culture within Japan is in crisis.
Louis Proyect