Please wait. Contacting image service... loading

Article text

TOKYO,"Tuesday (AAP-Reuter). -
The Japanese Government ordered today
an immediate investigation into a hitherto
undisclosed leak at a nuclear power plant
which exposed 56 workers to radiation.
Although the owners or the plant, at
Tsuruga on the Sea of Japan, said that the
workers had been subjected to only harmless
doses of radiation. Labour Ministry officials
were double-checking.
The accident, the worst in the 15*year
history of Japan's nuclear power industry,
might provide ammunition to the anti-nuclear
campaign in Japan which leads to frequent
demonstrations at nuclear-energy sites.
The Government is considering what action
to take against the plant because it.failed to
report the leak on March 8 as regulations
require. Two earlier minor teaks also had not
been reported.
The president of the Japan Atomic Power
Company, owner of the plant, said he would
take full responsibility.
The company said that the accident had
occurred when radioactive waste water poured
on to the floor of the plant after a valve on
a storage tank had been mistakenly left open.
Eight workers had begun to clean the water
up with buckets and mops and had been joined
later by 48 men provided by a sub-contractor.
The average dose of radiation received by
the men had been 10 niillirems, and the
highest 155 millirems. Regulations provide for
a maximum of 3,000 millirems over three
months. .
The leak was only discovered at the week
end when government inspectors making spot
checks found abnormally high levels of radia
tion on the seabed about 500 metres from the
plant.
RAINIER, Oregon, Tuesday (AAP-AP).
- A water pump blew up in the face of an
electrician at the Trojan nuclear power plant
yesterday, triggering an automatic shutdown
of the facility, but not releasing any radiation.
The electrician was treated for burns. The
plant will open again today.
TOKYO, Tuesday (AAP-AFP). - Eight
of 15 officially recognised sufferers of liver
ailments in Japan. from side-effects of
thorotrast, a radioactive, X-ray image-clari
fying agent, have died, according to the
Health and Welfare Ministry. A dozen other
unrecognised liver sufferers also fell victims
to the substance. All died at around the age
of 60.
Thorotrast, first developed in Germany in
1929, was used mainly to find the wounds of
soldiers, until it was banned by the Ministry
in 1950.
$