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- TOKAIMURA, JAPAN -
Japanese police have raided the head offices of the company behind Japan's
worst nuclear accident, as new evidence leads investigators to believe
the company knowingly ignored safety procedures.
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- Police raided the offices of the JCO company Sunday shortly
after the company admitted to a Japanese newspaper that it had been ignoring
safety procedures at its nuclear processing plant.
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- The accident happened early Thursday when workers at
the plant in Tokaimura, 140 kilometres northeast of Tokyo, were mixing
uranium with nitric acid.
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- They accidentally poured eight times too much uranium
into the mixing tank, setting off a nuclear chain reaction that caused
an explosion, sending radiation levels skyrocketing to 17,000 times above
normal.
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- Investigators have learned that workers from JCO bypassed
a complicated system of feeder tanks that was designed to add the uranium
in a controlled way. Instead, workers were using their hands to pour the
potentially deadly material into the container.
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- What officials must now determine is whether this was
standard practice at the plant or whether the men were acting on their
own.
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- The three men involved can not be questioned at this
time as they are still in hospital suffering from acute radiation sickness.
Two of them are in critical condition.
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- Doctors say one of the men may not pull through after
being exposed to lethal doses of radiation. Within a few days, he will
undergo a bone marrow transplant. The donor is his younger sister.
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- In all, 49 people were exposed to the radiation, although
only three were hospitalized.
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- On Saturday, the Japanese government lifted the evacuation
order for people living near the plant.
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- A government spokesman said radiation levels in the area
had returned to normal and that it was safe for people to return to their
homes.
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- Schools, supermarkets and shops reopened, although some
residents still wonder if it's safe.
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- People are still being checked for radiation as many
worry about the long-term implications of the accident.
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- While officials said crops, marine products and livestock
in the area were safe to eat, many shoppers weren't buying much at local
stores.
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- As more details are released about the accident, public
outrage has led to renewed calls for reform of the nuclear industry in
Japan.
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- Japan's president criticized the operators of the nuclear
plant. He said they'd been careless and that he doubted workers had been
trained properly or understood how to perform their duties safely.
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