Japan suffered its worst-ever accident at a nuclear facility on Monday. A steam leak from a power turbine at the Mihama nuclear power plant, 340 kilometres west of Tokyo, killed four people and injured seven. The culprit was a 50-centimetre crack in the conduit carrying the steam used to power the turbines. Officials said there had been no radiation leak during the incident.
The Japanese nuclear industry, which supplies about 25 per cent of the country鈥檚 power, is no stranger to accidents. In 1999, two workers died in an uncontrolled chain reaction at the Tokaimura nuclear plant north of Tokyo. Investigators blamed lax safety procedures. And in 2002, whistle-blowers revealed that for years the safety records at a number of nuclear plants had been routinely falsified and serious problems had been covered up.
The latest accident will reinforce fears that the government has not adequately tackled its nuclear industry鈥檚 troubled safety record and that other accidents are waiting to happen.
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