Incorrigible!
the accident-prone nuclear industry of Japan received yet another jolt when a fire and explosion hit a nuclear-waste reprocessing plant resulting in a low-level radiation leak. Inadequate action by the government to contain the fire, which was not extinguished properly, led to an explosion 10 hours later at the Tokaimura plant, 160 km northeast of Tokyo.
However, plant authorities claimed that the explosion had caused only a "tiny" amount of radiation leak from the plant where plutonium is extracted from spent nuclear-fuel rods. This is the second big nuclear accident in Japan. The first one occurred at Monju, Japan's only fast-breeder reactor in December 1995, at a time of increasing opposition against the nuclear industry. "I am shocked that the government did it again.They have learned nothing from the Monju accident," said Jinzaburo Takagi, a physicist and spokesperson for an anti-nuclear group, Citizens Nuclear Information Center, reacting to the delay in notifying the public of the accident. It has once again shaken the public's faith in government and hardened public sentiment against nuclear power, he added.