Posted on 03/31/2022 7:55:46 AM PDT by Red Badger
A terrible incident unfolded in Tokaimura, Japan, on 30 September 1999 when an uncontrolled chain reaction involving radioactive material was triggered. This would become the country’s worst nuclear accident. Over the next 20 hours, 49 people within the plant were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation – though it’s expected the total reach may have exceeded this.
Among them was Hisashi Ouchi, then aged 35, who was exposed to 17 sieverts (Sv) of radiation – 10 Sv more than the lethal dose, which is considered to be around seven. Attempts were made to save the technician’s life, but the devastating effect the radiation had on his body eventually killed him 83 days later.
THE TOKAIMURA CRITICALITY ACCIDENT
The accident occurred in a small fuel preparation plant in the Ibaraki Prefecture which supplied specialized research and experimental reactors, operated by JCO (formerly Japan Nuclear Fuel Conversion Co.), reports the World Nuclear Association. Those involved were preparing fuel for a reactor by mixing 2.4 kilograms (5.3 pounds) of enriched uranium with nitric acid.
The dangerous procedure was supposed to take place in a dissolution tank, directed by the approved nuclear fuel preparation procedure – but the workers had been instructed to follow a different procedure that hadn’t been approved. This saw them manually mixing 16 kilograms (35.3 pounds) of the fissile material in a stainless steel bucket.
“The uranium reached a critical mass at 10:35 am and set off an uncontrolled chain reaction that emitted radiation for almost 20 hours,” the BMJ reported.
“The three workers who carried out the operation reported seeing a blue flash – the Cerenkov radiation that is emitted during a critical reaction – before collapsing with nausea. They were rescued by colleagues and taken to a local hospital by emergency services.”
WHAT HAPPENED TO HISASHI OUCHI
Following the deadly exposure, Ouchi was taken to the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba. He had severe radiation burns to most of his body, as well as significant injury to his internal organs. Ouchi, alongside the two other workers, experienced profuse sweating and vomiting which put them at risk of dehydration.
Blood analysis also revealed the radiation had caused Ouchi’s lymphocyte count to plummet to almost zero. When lymphocytes – a type of white blood cell, involved in the immune system – get too low it’s termed lymphopenia (or lymphocytopenia), leaving the body vulnerable to infections. It can be brought on by blood disorders like Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukemia, as well as AIDS – and, evidently, exposure to radiation.
In a bid to save Ouchi’s life, doctors at the University of Tokyo Hospital tried carrying out a peripheral stem cell transplant from his brother. While the cells engrafted and began making blood cells, he continued to have issues with bone marrow suppression, requiring rigorous infection control.
Skin loss and gastrointestinal injuries meant he was losing a lot of blood and bodily fluids and he developed respiratory failure due to fluid on the lungs. He suffered a cardiac arrest on day 58 due to hypoxia, but was revived.
His condition continued to worsen as his kidneys and liver shut down, he continued to battle with respiratory failure and developed hemophagocytic syndrome, a life-threatening condition characterized by an overactive and abnormal immune response.
After 83 excruciating days, Ouchi finally succumbed to his injuries suffering a fatal cardiac arrest due to multiple organ failure. His colleague, Masato Shinohara, survived for seven months with the aid of skin grafts, cancer treatments, and an umbilical cord blood stem cell transfusion, but eventually died after 211 days, also due to multiple organ failure.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE TOKAIMURA CRITICALITY ACCIDENT
The fate of these men was a rare demonstration of the devastating effects of acute radiation sickness involving exposure to neutrons which were detailed in a report titled “Lessons Learned From The JCO Nuclear Criticality Accident In Japan In 1999”.
The failings of JCO regarding the serious breaches of safety principles led to criminal charges, and the plant’s operating license was eventually revoked by the year 2000.
Ping!................
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE TOKAIMURA CRITICALITY ACCIDENT:
Let them say their goodbyes and then copious amounts of morphine. :(
Somewhat related to this
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2020/02/anatoli-bugorski-man-who-stuck-his-head.html
Exactly- the poor fella lived almost 3 months of sheer hell on earth.
Hard to believe that workers at a nuclear power plant would be willing to "wing it" with new and unapproved procedures. I mean, what could go wrong?
Mixing fissile material in a bucket?
I might have expected this in the old USSR, but not in Japan.
Japan has rednecks! Who Knew????..................
I agree.
This wasn’t Bubba and Junior working on a backyard still.
You always think of the Japanese workers as very structured and devoted to procedures.
The Japanese doctors used these guys as human guinea pigs. Their treatments crossed the line into cruelty.
Interesting....I had not heard of this incident, although several similar mishaps occurred during initial development of the original US atomic bomb. Not a good way to go....
Oh, the old USSR had many more and far worse....Chernobyl, for instance....
It happens more often than we would like to think. Check out Plainly Difficult on youtube.
“After 83 excruciating days, Ouchi finally succumbed to his injuries suffering a fatal cardiac arrest due to multiple organ failure. His colleague, Masato Shinohara, survived for seven months with the aid of skin grafts, cancer treatments, and an umbilical cord blood stem cell transfusion, but eventually died after 211 days, also due to multiple organ failure.”
DON’T GO TO A HOSPITAL!
They TORTURED the one guy for 83 days, the second guy for TWO HUNDRED ELEVEN days.
When they were both ALREADY DEAD on day one.
They became “experiments”, “lab rats”.
Rahm Emanuel - “You never let a serious crisis go to waste.”
We will never know how many times this type of accident happened in the old USSR.
“What Happened To One Of The Most Irradiated Humans In History?”
He DIED.
The problem was not the stainless steel bucket.
The problem was putting 16 kg of material in it and then adding a water-based liquid. This is almost a guaranteed criticality incident.
(I once worked in the nuclear industry.)
I saw a video about this and in it they described what happened to the DNA in his cells.
The DNA in virtually every cell was destroyed. It was broken into pieces. There was no way they were going to save his life because his body could not repair itself.
What they did to him in experimenting on him despite his pleas to let him die is beyond reprehensible.
So that’s where the got the idea for the vaxx.
“The Japanese doctors used these guys as human guinea pigs. Their treatments crossed the line into cruelty.”
Huh! Sounds vaguely familiar. “The US medical community doctors used the citizens as human guinea pigs. Their treatments crossed the line into cruelty.”
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