Japan: Four reported dead in nuclear steam leak

Up to four people died after a steam leak at a Japanese nuclear plant today.

The Mihama Nuclear Power Plant automatically shut down and officials were investigating the cause of the accident, said Takahiro Seno, spokesman for Kansai Electric Power.

Kyodo News Agency reported that four people had died in the accident.

It was understood there was no radiation leak outside the plant.

Five workers at the plant suffered heart and lung failure and were taken to hospitals nearby in critical condition, said a local fire department official.

Eighteen people were injured, several of them seriously, said Yoichi Oyama at the Fukui prefecture (state) government office.

“Steam spewed in the turbine building area at the No 3 nuclear reactor,” at the plant in Fukui state, about 200 miles west of Tokyo, Seno said.

A string of safety problems since the country’s worst nuclear accident in 1999 has undermined public faith in nuclear energy and left the energy programme in limbo.

A radiation leak at a fuel-reprocessing plant in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, killed two workers and affected hundreds of others in 1999.

The accident, Japan’s worst at a nuclear plant, was caused by two workers who tried to save time by mixing excessive amounts of uranium in buckets instead of using special mechanised tanks.

No major accidents have occurred since then. But Japanese have grown wary of possible problems at nuclear plants after several major power-generation companies were hit with alleged safety violations at their reactors.

Japan relies on nuclear power to supply 30% of its electricity.