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	Tokaimura: Japan's Neutron "Bomb"
		In the middle of a crowded residential neighborhood in Tokaimura, Japan, manufacturers of nuclear reactor fuel caused a disaster September 30 that sent a billowing cloud of alpha, beta and gamma radiation into the atmosphere and spewed deadly neutrons* several kilometers from the site.
		Tokaimura, a city of 33,000 known as "nuclear alley," is home to 15 nuclear fuel, radioactive waste and reactor facilities.
		The residents of Tokaimura have expressed shock at the haphazard response of the company and the government.
	www.serve.com /~gvaughn/nukewatch/winter00/w00tokaimura.html (1051 words)

	Tokaimura Japan
		The immediate cause of the Tokaimura nuclear disaster was the addition of too much enriched Uranium into the nitric acid.
		Root causes of the Tokaimura criticality were ignoring government regulations and the lack of a "safety conscious work culture", an essential element of which is the right of employees to report safety violations to external regulators without fear of retaliation.
		Those funds need to be used to prevent the human health and economic disasters that internal USDOE documents disclose are possible from nuclear criticalities, fires and explosions at Hanford facilities, some of which are within 2000 feet of the Columbia River and two miles of public schools.
	www.heartofamericanorthwest.org /reportspubs/tokaimura.html (2397 words)

	Physics Today On The Web - Cover Story
		The critical mass was further reduced at Tokaimura because a water jacket surrounding the precipitation tank reflected neutrons back toward the center of the reaction.
		Assuming that the Tokaimura accident was in the same ballpark, Cochran estimates releases of 131I that overlap with those calculated by Peterson and Ahn.
		Cochran has concluded that the radiological impact on the public of the Tokaimura episode is not likely to be larger than that of the 1979 nuclear accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.
	www.aip.org /pt/dec99/toka2.htm (1831 words)

	TIMEasia.com \| Japan: Too Hot to Handle \| 10/11/99
		It's too bad they couldn't see it a few kilometers away at the Tokaimura town hall, or at the fire station, from where three firefighters were dispatched to the uranium plant without any protective gear because they thought they were going to treat someone having a seizure.
		The Tokaimura unit is part of the fuel supply line for an experimental fast-breeder reactor nearby.
		Tokaimura, a sprawling coastal town, should be prepared for nuclear accidents.
	www.time.com /time/asia/magazine/99/1011/cover1.html (1921 words)

	BBC News \| ASIA-PACIFIC \| Japan urged to ditch atomic power
		Two workers at the uranium processing plant in Tokaimura died as a result of the accident on 30 September 1999, the worst in the world since Chernobyl.
		A student from Tokaimura was among the demonstrators.
		But residents of Tokaimura remain worried and many say they are suffering from various unexplained illnesses and skin conditions.
	news.bbc.co.uk /1/hi/world/asia-pacific/949795.stm (418 words)

	Rad Journal - Tokaimura: Accident Waiting to Happen
		In September of this past year workers in Japan's Tokaimura plant unleashed a chain of events that resulted in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
		Nuclear experts have looked on in disbelief as it was revealed that the unit did not have built-in safeguards that would have made such errors impossible.
		The methods in use at the Tokaimura plant were also viewed as highly risky.
	www.radjournal.com /news/japan1.htm (1035 words)

	Questions on Tokaimura (Page 2 of 2)
		Moreover, as a result of the accident at Tokaimura, the government has announced that Fugen, an advanced thermal reactor that was also being developed as part of the program, will also be shut down - not due to any malfunction, but simply because there is nowhere to put the waste.
		The government is now pushing forward at full steam with a plan to burn a mixture of plutonium and uranium at conventional plants, in a desperate bid to get rid of some of its plutonium stockpile, but even this may prove impossible.
		Especially since the latest Tokaimura disaster, residents in towns near nuclear power plants are in no mood to be exposed to any danger - especially not from plutonium.
	www.zmag.org /Japan/Politics/Tokaimura2.html (875 words)

	The Tokaimura Accident
		The Tokaimura accident is the third most serious accident in the history of nuclear power, after the 1986 Chernobyl accident and the 1979 Three Miles Island accident.
		The Tokaimura accident was the third serious nuclear accident in four years.
		In 1996 a coolant leak and subsequent fire caused an emergency shutdown of the plutonium-fuelled reactor Monju.
	www.joewein.de /tokaimura.htm (628 words)

	NEI Report (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		At Tokaimura, a set of procedures defining the process involved in the accident was approved during the licensing of the facility.
		At Tokaimura buckets were authorized in place of process designed vessels to dissolve the U3O8 powder; this eliminated some designed-in mass and geometry control but maintained the use of geometrically safe storage columns.
		Review of the Tokaimura event did not indicate any administrative method for management to assure themselves that the procedures in actual use were those that they had sanctioned.
	www.bazley.net /archives/NEIreport.html (7232 words)

	tokai
		ARPANSA's logic was simple enough: the Tokaimura accident occurred during the manufacture of fuel rods for nuclear reactors, whereas the Lucas Heights plant operated by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) does not manufacture fuel rods, but imports them ready-made to load into the reactor.
		In fact the Japanese accident took place during the manufacture of fuel rods for a research reactor; it matters little that the fuel rods were for a research reactor of different design and purpose to the Lucas Heights reactor.
		It is instructive to compare the latest accident at Tokaimura with accidents which took place at Lucas Heights in February.
	www.geocities.com /jimgreen3/tokai.html (1166 words)

	PHYS4721.html
		Yet, the radiation levels in Tokaimura did increase after the accident, upon which emergency advisories were issued for residents close to the plant to evacuate their homes and for others in the general vicinity to remain indoors for a day.
		The Chernobyl accident and probably the Tokaimura are the examples of the case (1), whereas the TMI accident is the case (2).
		After the Tokaimura accident, the answer to this question is most likely to be "No." Before proceeding further, they must solve the problems on reactor safety and nuclear waste.
	www.phys.lsu.edu /students/mitsuko/NuclearTech/PHYS4721.html (4292 words)

	Hazard Cards - Tokaimura
		On September 30, 1999, a severe accident happened at the JCO Company Ltd. nuclear fuel factory 130 kilometres north of Tokyo in the village of Tokaimura.
		The nuclear fuel plant was producing nuclear fuel rods for the commercial nuclear industry through a chemical process.
		The JCO factory is located very near to the village Tokaimura and at least 200 villagers were exposed to radiation.
	www.hazardcards.com /card.php?id=36 (295 words)

	Safety violations produce Japan's worst nuclear accident
		Evacuated residents returned to their homes last Sunday after an aluminum and sandbag retaining wall was erected around the plant.
		Tokaimura, 140 kilometres north-east of Tokyo, is a major nuclear research centre.
		The town hosts reprocessing, enrichment and laser isotope enrichment plants and is the site of Japan's previous worst nuclear accident in 1997 when 37 workers were irradiated after an explosion at a nuclear plant.
	www.wsws.org /articles/1999/oct1999/jap-o04.shtml (1132 words)

	Japanese Nuclear Accident Timeline of Events
		Residents of Tokaimura, who were interviewed by phone while barricaded in their homes, expressed anger and disbelief that safety precautions could have been so lax and that the Government could have minimized the accident in the first crucial hours.
		Shortly after the Tokaimura criticality incident, neutron levels 10 to 100 times the normal level were detected at a JAERI laboratory about 2 km from the facility where the incident took place.
		Tokaimura farmers annually produce about 900 million yen worth of hoshi-imo, but after the accident, they began receiving order cancellations from consumers who feared the vegetables were contaminated with radiation.
	www.isis-online.org /publications/tokai.html (19716 words)

	Directory - Science: Technology: Energy: Nuclear: Safety and Accidents: Tokaimura Accident (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		Tokaimura Nuclear Accident - Its Causes, Health and Environmental Effects · cached · Research conducted by freshman seminar students about the causes, health and environmental effects of the accident.
		The Tokaimura Accident - Nuclear Energy and Reactor Safety · cached · Lecture of the State University of New York.
		Tokaimura Nuclear Accident · cached · Analysis by the Asian Monitor Resource Center on the accident, with focus on occupational safety and health.
	www.incywincy.com /default?p=374540 (213 words)

	New Page 1
		According to the news service, JCO assured the government that a criticality accident wouldn't occur ‘because the amount of nuclear substance would be limited according to its density, then weighed to confirm that its mass was within safety guidelines’” (Efron, Rietman).
		Furthermore, the document also cites the data gained from the samples which were taken from the vicinity of the plant through within Tokaimura’s town limits and were then tested for various forms of radiation.
		On the other hand, it is apparent that the IAEA does not recognize the fact that prior to the release of the study, the rating of the accident was upgraded to the rating of 5 on the IAEA’s INES Scale (Tolbert, October 8, 1999).
	www-rcf.usc.edu /~meshkati/tefall99/part3.html (2663 words)

	The Tokaimura Accident: Nuclear Energy and Reactor Safety - Case Study Collection - National Center for Case Study ...
		The Tokaimura nuclear fuel processing plant is operated by JCO Company Ltd. and is located approximately 120 kilometers (70 miles) northeast of Tokyo.
		The JCO plant is one of 15 nuclear facilities in Tokaimura.
		Approximately one-third of the population of Tokaimura is employed by the nuclear industry.
	ublib.buffalo.edu /libraries/projects/cases/tokaimura/tokaimura.html (645 words)

	TIMEasia.com \| Japan: How Japan's Accident Stacks Up Next to Chernobyl \| 10/11/99
		Last week's crisis in Tokaimura may rate as Japan's worst ever nuclear disaster, but it doesn't compare to the radioactive tragedies at Chernobyl in the then Soviet republic of Ukraine or even Three Mile Island in the United States.
		Unfortunately, the human error that appears to have caused the Tokaimura accident is also part of the Chernobyl heritage.
		Nuclear safety is a hot-button issue in Japan because of a series of recent accidents and, in a few cases, attempts to cover them up.
	www.time.com /time/asia/magazine/99/1011/japan.chernobyl.html (667 words)

	World: Asia-Pacific. Your experiences in Tokaimura
		I am afraid and astonished that the public loudspeaker system, supposed to be so good in times of earthquakes, etc, were silent that day when we all were in the dark and wanted to know about radiation levels in our area.
		Nuclear experts say the residents of Tokaimura were put in a situation equivalent to living in an area prone any minute to being attacked by a nuclear bomb (if nuclear reactions led to an explosion).
		With reference to the Japanese Tokaimura nuclear accident, I wish to point out that although some 300,000 residents have been told to stay indoors, the design of their sliding windows on tiny rollers is such that they are not properly sealed even when closed.
	www.dissident-media.org /infonucleaire/tokaimura/bbc_news.html (3919 words)

	TOKAIMURA NUCLEAR ACCIDENT EXPOSES JAPAN'S FAILED SAFETY CULTURE ON EVE OF ARRIVAL OF PLUTONIUM SHIPMENT
		Today's accident at Tokaimura confirms our fears: the entire safety culture within Japan is in crisis and the use of dangerous plutonium in reactors here will only increase the probability of a nuclear catastrophe", said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace International.
		The Tokaimura site has a range of nuclear facilities, including a plutonium reprocessing plant that suffered a fire and explosion in April 1997, which at the time was Japan's most serious accident.
		The operators of the plant are currently considering reopening the plant later this year, despite having no need for any more plutonium.
	archive.greenpeace.org /pressreleases/nucreact/1999sep30.html (336 words)

	Tokaimura is Here (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		This most deadly and broad radiation spill has poisoned the land and water well beyond Japan's Tokaimura region with long-lived cancer-causing poisons that smash and disorder the cell structure of living beings.
		The Tokaimura radiation explosion and fire were the result of ordinary (if illegal) operations in an inherently unsafe industry that is everywhere allowed to deal with deadly carcinogens without adequate regulation or oversight.
		If the world can muster enough indignation and cooperation, Tokaimura could be one of the last insults from the nuclear power and weapons establishment before it is shut down.
	www.serve.com /gvaughn/nukewatch/winter00/w00editorial.html (298 words)

	BBC News \| ASIA-PACIFIC \| Tokaimura: One year on
		The accident, in the town of Tokaimura north of Tokyo, had a devastating impact on confidence in Japan's nuclear industry.
		Japan's cities already rely on nuclear energy for 30% of their power and eight more nuclear plants are being planned despite the high degree of public opposition.
		In other words, the accident at Tokaimura has had little impact on government policy.
	news.bbc.co.uk /2/low/asia-pacific/949732.stm (580 words)

	IEER on Japan's Plutonium Plans vis-a-vis Tokai Incident, Press Release
		At the time of the Tokaimura accident, ships from Britain and France carrying MOX fuel were docking at Okuma, less than a hundred miles away.
		IEER noted that the consequences of the Tokaimura accident were localized because only about 16 kilograms of medium enriched fuel, equivalent to about 80 kilograms of the type of low-enriched uranium used in a commercial reactor, was used.
		Further, unlike the Tokaimura accident, an accident at a MOX fueled nuclear power plant could also release large amounts of plutonium and other transuranic radionuclides.
	www.ieer.org /reports/wind/tokai-pr.html (888 words)

	The Tokaimura Accident - Case Study Collection - National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science
		At Tokaimura only a very small fraction of the fission decay products are volatile in solution, and concentrations of xenon and krypton are generally thought to have been below the regulatory limits.
		A third potential source of radiation is the activation nuclei, or nuclei made radioactive by the absorption of neutrons.
		Studies have found that the decay of activated atmospheric nitrogen can contribute significantly to the total dose if people are not evacuated from the site of the criticality.
	ublib.buffalo.edu /libraries/projects/cases/tokaimura/tokaimura_3.html (794 words)

	Could the Tokaimura incident happen here?
		The main reason, say proponents and foes of the nuclear energy industry, is that Canada simply doesn't have the same kind of facility as the one in Tokaimura where Thursday's impromtu fission reaction occurred — and escaped.
		Reports from Japan suggest the accident began when a worker at the JCO Co. uranium plant in Tokaimura skipped a key step and mixed too much uranium — eight times the required level — with nitric acid in a storage tank.
		Because so much uranium was used, it got to a 'critical mass' where a chain reaction began to occur and could not be contained.
	www.exn.ca /Templates/Story.cfm?ID=1999100153 (650 words)

	High Risk of Hanford Nuclear Accidents
		A study released today by two public interest watchdog groups warns that the Pacific Northwest may face a nearly one in three chance of major nuclear accidents exposing the public to high doses of radiation and requiring the seizure of crops and milk in Eastern Washington and Oregon, if Hanford's FFTF nuclear reactor is restarted.
		That accident occurred when supervisors told workers to reprocess Highly Enriched Uranium nuclear fuel for a breeder reactor in violation of Japanese government safety regulations.
		The report shows that use of these highly contaminated facilities would harm efforts to clean up the "300 Area", where they are located, and increase the risks and likelihood of accidents.
	www.heartofamericanorthwest.org /newsreleases/release102199.html (1034 words)

	Asiaweek.com \| Intelligence \| After Tokaimura \| 10/13/99
		Take the recent radiation leak at Tokaimura, a nuclear laboratory and fuel processing complex 140 km north of Tokyo, now deemed to be Japan's worst nuclear accident.
		If somebody had ratted on the sloppy and probably illegal practices of JCO, the contractor at Tokaimura, Ouchi might not be fighting for his life.
		And it seems inconceivable to me that the contractor at Hanford could have written and used an unauthorized operations manual for years without somebody leaking the story to the papers, creating a scandal that would no doubt have been embarrassing but might have helped avoid a serious incident.
	www.asiaweek.com /asiaweek/intelligence/9910/13 (607 words)

	Planet Ark : UPDATE - Japan nuclear accident claims second victim (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		Shinohara, who was exposed to an estimated eight sieverts of radiation in the accident at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, was placed on a respirator after contracting pneumonia in February and on a dialysis machine this month after his kidney functions deteriorated.
		The Japanese government came under heavy fire for lax supervision of the industry after the accident, which occurred when the workers put nearly eight times the proper amount of condensed uranium into a mixing tank, triggering a nuclear chain reaction.
		A total of 439 workers and residents were exposed to radiation as a result of the Tokaimura accident.
	www.planetark.org /dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=6475 (683 words)

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