Word: plant
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...gave the all clear, the full extent of the damage is unknown. But what made it most frightening was the amount of time that passed before anybody seemed to know just how bad it was or wasn't. At one point, radiation levels a mile or so from the plant were 15,000 times higher than normal for an urban setting; 46 workers were exposed to dangerously high levels of radiation. U.S. and European experts said backup safety measures should have automatically shifted into gear to halt the disaster. But the facility, housed in a bland-looking white five-story...
...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...
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...
...next morning, neighborhoods around the plant looked like ghost towns. Train service in and out of the area was halted, and masked police 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...
...power industry has been caught in a harsh blue glare. In a nation where memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still painfully strong, and where earthquake faults run under much of the country, Japan still clings to an uneasy reliance on nuclear power. The country has 52 nuclear power plants, which supply more than 35% of the electricity demand. There are plans to build 20 more plants over the next decade. All of that would seem to demand ultra-strict safety standards. But the industry has been plagued by accidents, plant shutdowns, radiation leaks and cover-up attempts...