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Protection Agency Radiation Protection Division Japanese Prime Minister's Office (in English)
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Japanese still worried about radiation leak
Posted
10-11-99 Tokaimura, Japan. As a precautionary measure, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has stepped up checks of airborne radiation in California following a Sept. 30 nuclear accident at a fuel-processing plant in Tokaimura, Japan. It was the worst nuclear accident in Japan's history, injuring three workers-two critically-and possibly contaminating 40 others. So far, air quality tests have found only normal amounts of background radiation, lending credence to the official line that the incident is unlikely to have long-lasting environmental or health consequences. Japanese officials said that once the reaction was contained, the reactor stopped producing hazardous neutrons, bringing radiation levels around the plant to normal. According to news reports, residents in the coastal area remain wary, their fears heightened by a string of accidents at nuclear plants over the past few years, including a fire at the Tokaimura plant in 1995. Exposure to radiation has a rapid and toxic effect on the human body. In large doses, it can kill, while in lesser doses it can damage the blood and central nervous systems. The gastrointestinal system is particularly susceptible to radiation, with nausea and vomiting rapidly following exposure. Long-term effects include sterility, cancer, and genetic damage that can be passed on to children. The three workers at the plant were exposed to about the same amount of radiation as workers at Chernobyl, site of the world's worst nuclear accident. Thirty-one people died in that incident and thousands developed thyroid cancer and leukemia. Human error was responsible for the Tokaimura accident, which was triggered when workers mixed too much uranium with nitric acid, setting off a fission reaction. An official at Japan's nuclear regulatory agency said workers may have added more than seven times the recommended limit.
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