October 1, 1999
OVERVIEW
Japanese Fuel Plant Spews Radiation After Accident
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By HOWARD W. FRENCH
OKYO -- In the worst accident in Japan's troubled history with nuclear power, an out-of-control chain reaction Thursday at a fuel plant 87 miles northwest of Tokyo spewed high levels of radiation into the air. Thirty-five people were exposed, three of them seriously injured, and 300,000 residents were ordered to stay indoors.
The reaction was brought under control early Friday morning.
The New York TimesOfficials said the reaction was set off when workers accidentally poured 35 pounds of uranium into a purification tank containing nitric acid, instead of the 5.2 pounds normally used.
This mistake reportedly caused a flash of blue light inside the plant, which is owned by the Sumitomo Metal Mining Company and operated by the JCO Company. Scientists said the flash may have been the result of a fast chain reaction.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company rushed 880 pounds of sodium borate to the plant to absorb the radiation, but the authorities said they had no way of getting close enough to the processing tank to dump the powder onto it.
When initial efforts to stop the reaction failed, the Government ordered nearby residents to stay indoors. A primary school, a kindergarten, shops and several homes lie in the affected area.
For most of the day Thursday, the Government made little fuss about the accident, closing off an area with a three-mile perimeter and warning residents to keep windows shut.
Late Thursday evening, the East Japan Railway suspended trains to the immediate region of the accident. Major highways were also closed, and electronic signs were posted on small roads warning motorists to avoid the area.
The restrictions remained in effect today and residents of the immediate area were further cautioned to avoid contact with well water or rain water. A light rain was falling on Friday.
Officials have said nothing so far about the possibility of airborne or waterborne radiation contaminating other areas, nor have they addressed the long-term impact of the radiation that escaped.
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, who was scheduled to name a new cabinet on Friday but was forced by the incident to postpone the change, apologized tacitly for the slow official reaction.
"We must obtain decisions from scientists, technicians and experts" to assess such accidents, he told reporters at his residence, according to the Kyodo news agency. "If they were slow in making decisions, we must make sure that that never happens again."
Chihiro Kamisawa, an anti-nuclear activist, said in an interview with The Associated Press: "So much has been made of Japan's sophisticated technology that supposedly makes nuclear energy safe. The accident proves that's absolutely not true."
In the past, Japan has compounded nuclear accidents with slow and often misleading information given to the public. Commentators are already predicting a strong backlash in public opinion against the industry, and perhaps against a deeply embarrassed Government.
The confused emergency response has been matched by a confused political one, with rival agencies alternately seeking to dismiss concerns about the country's vast nuclear energy program, or calling for a sweeping re-evaluation.
Early Friday the chief of the Natural Resources and Energy Agency, Hirobumi Kawano, still ruled out the idea that an uncontrolled reaction could occur at a nuclear plant in Japan, and told reporters he did not intend to instruct power companies to re-examine their safety measures, Kyodo reported.
A top official of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, however, said the accident was serious enough to lead Japan to reconsider its nuclear power policy. Japan operates 51 nuclear power plants.
Officials requested the assistance of United States military forces in Japan to handle the accident. According to the Japan Self-Defense Agency, the Government was informed that American forces here are not equipped to deal with nuclear accidents.
[In Sarov, Russia, where he is on a study mission, Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson said Russia and the United States were prepared to send nuclear specialists to help Japan if Tokyo asked for assistance.
["So far, the Japanese have only asked us for information," Richardson said in an interview. "But I've spoken to our Russian counterparts, and my department and Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy both stand ready to send a joint team almost immediately to help Japan with this tragedy."]
The Japanese television network NHK said early this morning that after repeated failed attempts to drain the tank by remote control, emergency workers broke pipes leading to the purification chamber, allowing it to cool. Workers were attempting to insert hoses into the contaminated area to drench it with chemicals to absorb the radiation.
In an indication that the accident was being brought under control, Japanese television said that at 6:30 A.M. today, the Science and Technology Agency reported that no radiation could be detected at 14 monitoring sites around the plant.
According to the Japanese Atomic Energy Research Institute, measurements of radiation levels at the plant were reported to have been from 10,000 to 20,000 times the normal levels.
"It is an intense situation in which there is concern over the continued effects of radiation," Prime Minister Obuchi told an emergency task force named late Thursday to oversee handling of the accident. "We must make certain to prioritize the safety of the residents."
Late this morning, Hiromu No naka, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, said at a news conference, "Unfortunately we have to frankly admit that the Government reaction was late. We have to frankly admit that our recognition of the seriousness of the accident was not keen enough."
On Thursday night, Nonaka said units of the Self-Defense Force's chemical warfare unit were being dispatched to the site of the plant, at Tokaimura, 87 miles northwest of Tokyo, but that Japan was "not capable of dealing with this kind of nuclear accident."
Nonaka said the runaway reaction was "something that Japan has never experienced."
Initial reports said only three workers had been injured at the site, and had been taken by helicopter to a hospital in Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, that specializes in nuclear-related illnesses.
Two workers were reported to be in serious condition, and a doctor involved in their treatment said all three had been exposed to "a quite substantial amount of radiation." One is in critical condition and has not recovered consciousness.
As it became apparent late Thursday that the accident had still not been brought under control, more reports of radiation-related injuries trickled in. By dawn, authorities said, at least 35 people had been contaminated, including workers at a neighboring site and the medics who helped evacuate the first three workers injured.
"A major accident resulting in a radioactive leak has happened," said Koji Kitani, president of the JCO Company. "We apologize from the bottoms of our hearts."
Tokaimura, a town of about 33,000 residents, is home to more than a dozen nuclear-type plants, and was the site of Japan's worst previous nuclear accident, in 1997. In that incident, 37 workers were exposed to radiation after a fire in one of the plants was improperly extinguished and caused a small explosion.
Japan, which has no crude oil of its own, pushed the development of nuclear energy in the 1970's after a sharp rise in oil prices. The country is now dependent on nuclear power for about one-third of its electricity needs, one of the highest ratios anywhere. The fuel made at the plant where the accident occurred is used in nuclear reactors nearby.
This familiarity with nuclear power has not allowed the country to avoid accidents, however, and in recent years nuclear safety has increasingly become a political issue.
In July, radiation estimated to be 11,500 times higher than normal levels leaked out of faulty pipes in a reactor in Tsuruga, about 200 miles west of Tokyo. During that accident, a reactor owned by the Japan Atomic Power Company was forced to shut down after losing 51 tons of its radioactive cooling water. The Tsuruga plant remains closed for repairs.
The newspaper Mainichi Shimbun today quoted outraged members of the Government Nuclear Safety Commission.
Kenji Sumida, for example, said, "I know that this is difficult to believe, but I think that we have no choice but to recognize this accident as having been critical."
Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company
