On September 30, 1999, the more significant Tokai nuclear disaster took place at a fuel enrichment facility run by JCO, a division of Sumitomo Metal Mining Company, some four miles away from the PNC complex. Prior to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, it was the deadliest nuclear radiation accident to affect civilians in Japan.
This world's most significant nuclear tragedy left the world's 'most radioactive' man with 'melted flesh.'
Hisashi Ouchi, an employee at the uranium processing factory in Tokaimura, 70 miles northeast of Tokyo, was exposed to a noteworthy quantity of radiation, resulting in horrific burns.
This was to be the starting point of 83 days of awful distress and serious trouble for the 35-year-old, who passed on December 21 after begging medical professionals months before to stop treating him.
The catastrophe occurred as a result of a series of catastrophic errors made by him and his coworkers while preparing uranium for use as reactor fuel in the privately owned plant, including carrying the uranium in buckets and not wearing necessary protective equipment.
Operators Ouchi and Masato Shinohara were racing up the transformation process by injecting 16 kg of uranium in a vat with a maximum limit of 2.4 kg when a chain reaction erupted as Ouchi was 'draped over' the tank.
He was exposed to 17 Sieverts of radiation; in comparison, rescue workers at Chernobyl were exposed to 0.25 Sieverts of radiation, which is more than quadruple what is considered a deadly dose.
Additionally, he has the highest level of radiation ever measured in a living being, making him the most radioactive individual in history.
He claimed that he and his coworkers witnessed a blue flash above the vat, which is a sign that a reaction like one inside an atomic bomb occurred and released lethal neutron radiation.
The coworkers quickly went unconscious when the plant went off an alarm and radiation levels rose to 4,000 times normal.
Many people in the neighborhood were unaware that the modest building was actually a nuclear reactor, so they were forced to flee.
Ouchi was taken by ambulance to the University of Tokyo Hospital, where medical staff discovered that he required numerous blood transfusions, massive skin transplants, and treatment for nearly no white blood cells.
He was reportedly "crying blood" and pleaded with the physicians to stop treating him, according to local sources at the time.
He had many heart attacks, but on his 59th day in the hospital, he was revived.
On December 21, 1999, Ouchi passed away, and several months later, in April 2000, Shinohara, another technician, passed away at the age of 40 from multiple organ failure.
The supervisor, Yokokawa, was also hospitalized but ended up being released after three months due to mild radiation sickness.
Together with five other JCO executives, he later faced allegations of professional negligence. They all pleaded guilty in April 2001.
Later, JCO forfeited its license to operate nuclear facilities and paid $121 million to resolve 6,875 claims for reimbursement from people and organizations that had been harmed by radiation or exposed to it.
The disaster also served as the catalyst for a slew of new laws in Japan that strengthen the standards for security in operation in the nuclear energy sector.
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