Reuters: Second Death from JCO Criticality Accident

["Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@hotmail.com>]

Reuters' report./  Bjorn Cedervall   bcradsafers@hotmail.com
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Thursday April 27 3:01 AM ET
Japan Nuclear Accident Claims Second Victim
By Kazunori Takada

TOKYO (Reuters) - A plant worker exposed to massive radiation in Japan's
worst nuclear accident died on Thursday, the second victim of an incident
that has jolted public confidence in the nation's nuclear power industry.

Tokyo University Hospital officials said Masato Shinohara, 40 -- one of
three workers exposed to heavy doses of radiation in the accident last
September -- had died of multiple organ failure.

``It is true that Mr. Shinohara has died as a result of the accident,'' one
hospital official said.

Shinohara, who was exposed to at least eight sieverts of radiation in the
accident at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, was
placed on a respirator in February after pneumonia and radiation damage to
his respiratory system impaired his breathing, and on a dialysis machine
this month after his kidney functions deteriorated.

Last October, he received a transfusion of blood cells from the umbilical
cord of a newborn in an effort to stimulate his ability to produce blood
cells, which was disastrously damaged by the radiation.

Another worker, Hisashi Ouchi, 35, died in December after being exposed in
the accident to 17 sieverts of radiation -- the equivalent of about 17,000
times the average annual normal exposure in Japan.

Experts say seven sieverts is considered a lethal dose.

A third worker who also suffered heavy radiation exposure had recovered and
was released from hospital in December.

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.

Saying Shinohara's death had filled him with ``deep regret, Science and
Technology Agency chief Hirofumi Nakasone pledged to renew government
efforts to prevent such accidents, Kyodo news agency said.

On Tuesday, officials said they had decided to stick with a ''level four''
rating for the Tokaimura accident, despite earlier suggestions that they
might raise it one notch to ''level five.''

Level four on the International Atomic Energy Agency's zero-to-seven
International Nuclear Event Scale indicates the possibility of a fatal
radiation leak at the accident site but no significant risk outside the
plant, the official said.

A total of 439 workers and residents were exposed to radiation as a result
of the Tokaimura accident.

America's Three Mile Island accident was a level five, while the Soviet
Union's Chernobyl accident in 1986 rated a level seven -- the worst nuclear
power accident on record.

Japan has a comparatively good record on nuclear accidents, but the
Tokaimura case has sparked growing public concern about an industry that
supplies some one-third of the nation's electricity needs.

Earlier this month, the government began a one-year review of its nuclear
policy.
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