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CHRONOLOGY-Incidents and accidents at Japan's nuclear plants

Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:01am EDT


(For related story see [ID:nT265821])

July 18 (Reuters) - The world's biggest nuclear power plant in northwest Japan was ordered on Wednesday to stay closed after a strong earthquake caused radiation leaks, as the top U.N. nuclear watchdog said the utility had misjudged seismic risks.

Following are some other incidents at Japan's nuclear plants:

FIRST FATAL ACCIDENT:

* 1967: One person dies in a fire at a nuclear plant in Ibaraki prefecture, north of Tokyo, a year after the country's first nuclear power plants open.

RADIATION LEAK:

* March 11, 1997: Some 37 workers are exposed to radiation after an explosion and fire at the Tokaimura nuclear processing plant, 160 km (100 miles) northeast of Tokyo. Plant officials admit they waited five hours before informing authorities.

DEADLY ACCIDENT:

* Sept. 30, 1999: Two workers are killed at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, north of Tokyo, when an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction is triggered by poorly trained workers mixing nuclear fuel in buckets. The accident, Japan's second most deadly, forces its first ever evacuation, as thousands of nearby residents are instructed to take shelter.

SAFETY FEARS FORCE SHUTDOWN:

* Sept. 2002: Japan's biggest power utility, TEPCO, is forced to shut down all 17 of its reactors for checks after admitting it falsified safety data.

DEADLIEST ACCIDENT:

* Aug. 9, 2004: Japan's deadliest nuclear accident occurs when five workers are killed when hot water and steam leak from a broken pipe at Kansai Electric Power Co's Mihama No. 3 nuclear power plant, 320 km (200 miles) west of Tokyo.

EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE

* July 16, 2007: The world's biggest nuclear plant -- TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant on Japan's northwest coast -- is closed after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake causes several malfunctions including a fire in a transformer and small radiation leaks into the ocean and the atmosphere. TEPCO says the leaks caused no damage to people or the environment.

Source: Reuters news file




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