TOKYO -- A Japanese uranium processing plant leaked Thursday, sending radiation levels skyrocketing and leading to the hospitalization of three workers, two in critical condition.
About 150 people were evacuated from the area around the plant in Tokaimura, a town about 70 miles northeast of Tokyo.A nuclear reaction apparently occurred while the workers there were processing the uranium into fuel for nuclear power plants, a highly delicate task, said Makoto Ujihara, head of the Tokyo office of JCO Co., the private company that operates the plant.
"A major accident resulting in a radioactive leak has happened. We apologize from the bottom of our hearts," said JCO President Koji Kitani, bowing deeply at a news conference in Tokyo.
Radiation levels around the plant were 10,000 times higher than normal at one point, and about 10 times normal 11/4 miles from the accident, said Tatsuo Shimada, an official of Ibaraki Prefecture, or state.
The levels dropped off later, but they remained higher than normal late Thursday, and there were fears of a possible continued nuclear reaction at the plant, said Science and Technology Agency official Ken Muraoka.
A nuclear reaction is a dangerous phenomenon that releases extremely intense energy as well as radiation, but it stops once the radioactive material is spent.
The government set up a task force of top ministers to investigate the accident, the first time such a step has been taken in Japan for a nuclear accident. It sent specialists to the area to monitor the radioactivity.
The three workers said they saw a blue light, then became ill, Ujihara said.
The nuclear reaction was set off when the workers accidentally mixed too much uranium in the tank, company officials said. They said they thought that while radioactivity was released into the atmosphere, the radioactive material itself remained contained.
The exposed workers were initially taken to a local hospital. They were later flown to a medical center specializing in radiation sickness.
Two of the workers were in critical condition, hospital official Yukio Kamakura said.