The Galveston Daily News from Galveston, Texas • Page 14

A14 THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 1997 GALVESTON COUNTY, TEXAS shows Japan's nuclear woes Two fires at the Tokaimura nuclear processing plant Tuesday came as Japan is trying to rebuild trust in its nudear program, set Jback by an accident in December 1995. pfant uniiaaiiia fast-breeder reactor in Tsuruga Mortju. The reactor's operator tried to cover up the. extent of that accWerrt, which later tests showed could have resulted In an explosion. Feb.

22,1993: High-pressure steam accident killed one worker and Injured two others at Fukushima power plant. August 17,1991: Automatic shutdown due to technical problems at Sendai power plant. 17,1991: Reactor shuts down due to break of control system at Sendai. Feb. 8,1991: Radioactivity released from Fukui power plant.

June 23,1966: Twelve people suffer "slight" plutonium contamination white inspecting a storeroom at Tokaimura. Fire at Fukushima nuclear power plant during routine shutdown. April 2,1979: Two workers suffer radioactive contamination at Tokaimura complex. Jan, 1975: Radioactivity released from Mihama power plant. J.

Castello TOKYO, Japan Dozens of -alarms shrieked and banks of limits flashed red as Japanese investigators tentatively poked through scrape of twisted metal at a nuclear waste handling facility. Dressed in what looked like bloated space suits and helmets, breathing loudly through respirators, the men walked past laboratory equipment wrenched apart by an explosion and back-to- back fires Tuesday. Footage of the inside of the nuclear processing plant in northeastern Japan was shown on the evening news Wednesday. Tuesday's fires and explosion occurred on the first floor of a four- story building in Tokaimura, an 11 million-square-foot complex with a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant and laboratories 70 miles northeast of Tbkyo. The compound contains no nuclear reactor.

et's keep out of was struggling to rebuild trust in nuclear program, set back by a 1995 accident in a prototype fasMbroeder reactor, which warning fellow investigators away from a room inside a nuclear processing plant that suffered an explosion and fires Tuesday. No one was injured in the fires, which broke out in the area 10 hours apart, and officials said radiation levels remained well within safe limits around the plant But the fires immediately increased criticism of the nation's nuclear power system. The fires exposed 35 workers to minimal amounts of radiation of the dose considered safe for a year, plant spokesman Fu- mitaka Watanabe said Wednesday. Damage from the blast was clear in the video. "Lets keep out of there," an investigator said as the men looked into a second-floor room in which drums full of radioactive material mixed protectively asphalt weres stored.

The floor and ceiling were torn apart and equipment was strewn around. On the first floor, water was splattering down from the ceiling. The asphalt-handKngroom where the fire broke out was not shown on the video, but shattered windows indicated a strong blast. The cause of the fires remained under investigation. Even before this accident, Japan fuel while generating electricity.

In the 1995 accident, leak of volatile sodium in a secondary cooling system forced-an emergency shutdown at the fast- breeder reactor in Tsuruga, 220 miles west of Tokyo. On Tuesday night, local officials where the reprocessing facility is located said the company failed to fully inform them about the fires and possible radiation leaks; "I apologize for making the people uneasy about the acck dent because pf the way it was handled," Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto told a parliamentary committee in Tokyo. has 51 nuclear power plants in operation, producing 33.8 percent of the country's total energy needs. KIDS ESSENTIALS Just a sampling of our well-made and priced play wear EII1S 7 16 SBCCEI SHITS Copper Key nylon shorts with a a soccer ball pattern woven into the fabric! In a rainbow of colors; sizes Cute 'n' cool cotton shorts with coordinating tops choose from many charming prints and patterns. From Kaboom; sizes 2T-4T.

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