Word: nuclearism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...workers soaked up potentially lethal doses of radiation, still more leaked from the plant in Tokaimura, the hub of the Japanese nuclear power industry. Eventually, more than 300,000 people in Tokaimura and eight nearby towns were bunkered in their homes, waiting to find out how badly they were affected. Meanwhile, 28 million people in metropolitan Tokyo, downwind of the accident, wondered about their fate. As the hours ticked by, a plodding government dithered and displayed once again its inability to come to grips with a huge nuclear power industry riddled with safety flaws...
...factory, built in 1982, is part of the fuel supply line for an experimental fast-breeder nuclear power plant. It is where fissionable U-235 is combined with nitric acid to produce uranium dioxide, which is then combined at another plant with plutonium to produce the enriched uranium pellets used as breeder fuel. According to JCO, workers inexplicably mixed far more than the normal amount of uranium--35.2 lbs. instead of 5.2 lbs.--with the acid. Then they used stainless-steel buckets rather than pipes--again, inexplicably--to pour the liquefied uranium into the tank. The high concentration of uranium...
...hours after the accident, teenager Yoshitaka Nanbara wandered to a friend's house, just a few yards from the facility's back fence. The two youngsters spent an hour or so playing Biohazard on a Sony PlayStation. Loudspeakers mounted on telephone poles around the town, built to warn of nuclear disaster, were silent...
Tokaimura is a town that should be ready for nuclear accidents. It is home to 15 nuclear power facilities and has had three other 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...
...officers in protective gear 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...