Word: almost
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...nuclear accidents in the past four years. Yet three fire fighters who answered an emergency call at the plant misunderstood the reason. They thought someone was having an epileptic seizure and so didn't wear protective clothing. The Tokaimura town office didn't find out about the accident for almost an hour...
...stopped motorists from entering. The country's leaders went on national TV to admit that they didn't know what was wrong or how to end whatever was going on inside the plant. More hours ticked by during which no one tried to stop the nuclear reaction. Finally, after almost 20 hours, the disaster was contained, and local residents were told several hours later that they could go outside. Those living closest to the plant were still barred from returning home, and radiation testing continued. The fuel plant will be shut down indefinitely...
...them in U.S. stocks and bonds. If the dollar continues to droop, they may be tempted to move their cash to currencies on the upswing, like the euro and, especially, the yen. That would drive the U.S. market lower. The more apocalyptic bears fear something worse. Because foreigners hold almost 40% of U.S. Treasury securities, any pullout would risk a spike in interest rates that would ultimately slaughter the bull market...
Chances are you already know people who have had their eyes--in that newest of buzz verbs--lasered. Nearly 500,000 Americans are expected to undergo the procedure in 1999--almost double the number in 1998. For 7 out of 10 it worked spectacularly: it corrected their vision to a very normal 20/20. Most of the rest still saw well enough to drive without corrective lenses. By 2010, some surgeons predict, LASIK will have advanced so far that 90% of patients will see better than 20/20. That's impressive for surgery you couldn't get in the U.S. until just...
Enter the excimer laser. Originally developed in the 1970s for the precise etching of computer chips, it is a so-called cool laser, meaning that it can cut through almost any material without generating a lot of heat damage. That's just the kind of exacting low-impact tool surgeons needed to rework the delicate tissues of the eye. So a company called Summit Technology, of Waltham, Mass., dedicated itself to figuring out how to adapt the excimer laser to eye surgery. Today, Summit and another company, Visx, of Santa Clara, Calif., dominate the eye-laser industry...