Four killed at nuclear plant

2004-08-09 11:11

Tokyo - Four workers were killed and several others severely burned by a steam leak on Monday at a nuclear plant west of Tokyo, Japanese media and officials said.

Kyodo News Service and public broadcaster NHK reported that four workers had died after suffering severe burns, and that at least one other worker was in critical condition.

Officials said the leak did not involve radioactivity. No danger was posed to the surrounding area, they said, and no evacuation order was issued.

Yoichi Oyama, at the Fukui prefecture (state) government office, said at least three people died.

Other officials could not immediately confirm any deaths, but said the hearts and lungs of five workers stopped and they were taken to hospitals nearby. In all, 11 people were injured in the accident, said Atsushi Murakami, a local city hall official.

"There was no leak of radioactivity that could harm the environment," said Nobutake Masaki, a city official in Mihama, about 320km west of Tokyo. "The steam leaked inside the building."

Takahiro Seno, a spokesperson for Kansai Electric Power, said the plant automatically shut down and officials were investigating the cause of the accident. He had no further details.

Lack of cooling water

He said the accident occurred when steam spewed from a leak in the turbine building area at the No 3 nuclear reactor run in Mihama.

Kansai Electric Power Co. officials said a lack of cooling water caused the accident, Kyodo News Agency reported. It said the steam was 270 degrees Celsius (518 Fahrenheit).

The accident was the worst since 1999, when a radiation leak at a fuel-reprocessing plant in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, killed two workers and affected hundreds of others. The accident, Japan's worst at a nuclear plant, was caused by two workers who tried to save time by mixing excessive amounts of uranium in buckets instead of using special mechanized tanks.

A string of safety problems since has undermined public faith in nuclear energy and left the energy program in limbo.

The Japanese have grown wary of possible problems at nuclear plants after several major power-generation companies were hit with alleged safety violations at their reactors.

Japan relies on nuclear power to supply 30 percent of its electricity.

- AP