JAPANESE MILITARY SEALED OFF TOKAIMURA FOLLOWING NUCLEAR ACCIDENT
UFO ROUNDUP Volume 4 Number 24 October 7, 1999 Editor: Joseph Trainor Masinaigan@aol.com

On Thursday morning, September 30, 1999, workers at the JCO Company plant in Tokaimura, Ibaraki prefecture, Japan accidentally started a nuclear chain reaction that emitted lethal levels of radiation.

About 15,000 REMs (REM stands for Radiation Equivalent Man--J.T.) were emitted at the uranium processing plant, located about 112 kilometers (70 miles) northeast of Tokyo. The JCO Company refines uranium so that it can be used in the nuclear reactors of Japan's electrical industry. About 33 percent of Japan's electrical power comes from nuclear plants.

"The accident occurred Thursday after workers mistakenly put too much uranium into a" stainless steel "bucketlike container, setting off an uncontrolled atomic reaction that continued for hours and sent radioactivity into the air."

"Instead of relying on the high-tech equipment that is standard at a nuclear facility, the workers were using their hands to pour the potentially deadly material (uranium oxide--J.T.) into the container, company officials said."

Overloading the bucket with uranium oxide set neutrons interacting with each other, creating a spontaneous nuclear chain reaction.

Forty-nine factory workers were exposed to the radiation, but only three were rushed to the Tokyo University Hospital.

One worker, Hisachi Ouchi, "had been exposed to about 17,000 (REM) times what is normal for annual exposure"

"It was a lethal dose," said Dr. Kamihiko Maekawa, Ouchi's physician, on Sunday, October 3. Dr. Maekawa added that "doctors have decided to conduct a transplant of blood stem cells sometime in the next few days. Doctors hope the operation helps to restore Ouchi's white-blood-cell count and prevent him from losing the function in his blood-producing bone marrow, which is keenly sensitive to radiation exposure."

Later that Thursday, a Chemical Warfare Response Team of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) entered the JCO factory. An "off-limits zone" 200 meters in diameter was established around the plant.

That night, Masaru Hashimoto, governor of Ibaraki prefecture, extended the perimeter of the "off-limits zone" to 10 kilometers (6 miles) and urged residents living within the zone to remain in their homes and not venture outdoors.

Within the "off-limits zone" were 310,000 civilian residents, affected by what was rapidly becoming Japan's worst nuclear accident.

The Japanese government also closed the Joban line of the East Japan Railway Company, cutting off rail access to Mito and Tsuchiura and stranding thousands of commuters.

Gov. Hasimoto also closed schools and advised Japanese farmers not to harvest their crops until a full survey of the radiation damage has been completed.

On Sunday morning, October 3, 1999, Akito Arima, director of Japan's Science and Technology Agency, told a news conference that the nuclear mishap was being "seriously investigated" and "We should take steps to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again."

On Saturday, October 2, 1999, the Japanese government allowed the 160 people living next door to the JCO plant, who had been evacuated on Thursday, return to their homes. (See Asahi Shimbun for October 1, 1999. See also USA Today for September 30, 1999 and October 4, 1999, "Japan says nuclear leak contained" and "Japan probes 'inconceivable' safety lapses at plant. Domo arigato to Miyuki Tamura, UFO Roundup correspondent in Japan, for the background information.)