Police to make arrests over Tokaimura nuclear...

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Police to make arrests over Tokaimura nuclear...

MITO, Japan, Aug. 25 (Kyodo) - Police plan to arrest about three 
employees of JCO Co., operators of a uranium-processing facility in 
Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, over a fatal nuclear chain reaction 
last September that killed two JCO workers and exposed hundreds of 
people to radiation, police sources said Thursday. 

The employees will be arrested sometime next month on suspicion of 
professional negligence resulting in death and injury, the sources 
said. 

Police also plan to file criminal charges against former JCO 
President Hiroharu Kitani and other JCO executives on suspicion that 
they violated the nuclear facility operation law, the sources said. 

JCO is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. 

Two JCO workers -- Hisashi Ouchi, 35 and Masato Shinohara, 40 -- have 
died from exposure to a huge amount of radiation in the accident. 

The accident took place Sept. 30, 1999 when Ouchi, Shinohara and 
another JCO worker poured a large amount of uranium into a tank not 
designed to hold the radioactive substance, triggering a fissionable 
chain reaction. 

At least 439 people, including 207 residents in Tokaimura, were found 
exposed to radiation, mostly in minor doses. 

JCO's business license is based on the Law Concerning the Regulation 
of Nuclear Raw Materials, Nuclear Fuel Materials and Nuclear 
Reactors, which requires operators of nuclear facilities to obtain 
approval before changing any production procedures. 

However, in January 1993 the company began using buckets instead of 
legally mandated equipment to process uranium, and in 1996 included 
the method in a company manual without the knowledge of government 
regulators, the sources said. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
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