Plant in Japanese Nuclear Accident Has License Revoked
The government on Tuesday revoked the license of a uranium-processing plant for causing Japan’s worst nuclear accident, which killed one worker and seriously sickened two others.
More than 400 residents were exposed to radiation Sept. 30 at the JCO Co. plant in Tokaimura, about 80 miles northeast of Tokyo.
The death was the country’s first ever in a nuclear accident. Of the two surviving highly exposed workers, one remains hospitalized in serious condition and the other has been discharged.
The accident occurred when workers at the plant ignored regulations and combined nitric acid with seven times the approved amount of enriched uranium, setting off an uncontrolled atomic reaction.
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