Hello to all of you interested in Criticality Accident information,
I am still in the process of updating my email lists. Please pass the following information along to those who might be interested. In addition, if I have not yet contacted you or your group to obtain updated information for my email lists, please have somebody in your group send me an updated list of those who wish to be on either or both of the relevant lists (general criticality safety or criticality accident information).
Relevant to the nuclear criticality accident on September 30, 1999, Japanese authorities indicted JCO and six JCO officials in October. The company was charged with to violating Japan’s Nuclear Reactor Regulation Law. The officials were charged with negligence that resulted in two deaths. The trial opened Monday, April 23, 2001. JCO and these six official pleaded guilty to the charges. I do not know the Japanese legal system, and therefore do not know if that ends the case. Media articles to date do not indicate what, if any, sentences were imposed, or if the trial ends with these guilty pleas.
Web posted information, primarily in the form of links, is listed below:
"Six Plead Guilty in Japan’s Worst Nuclear Accident," Miho Yoshikawa,
Reuters, Tokyo, Monday April 23 3:14 AM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010423/wl/japan_nuclear_dc_1.html
-or (more printer friendly)-
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20010423/wl/japan_nuclear_dc_1.html
-or-
http://news.lycos.com/headlines/World/article.asp?docid=RTINTERNATIONAL-JAPAN-NUCLEAR-DC&date=20010423
"Officials: Guilty in Nuke Accident,"
AP, Tokyo, Monday April 23 1:45 AM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010423/wl/japan_nuclear_accident_1.html
-or (more printer friendly)-
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/ap/20010423/wl/japan_nuclear_accident_1.html
-or-
http://news.lycos.com/headlines/World/article.asp?docid=APAP-Japan-Nuclear-Accident&date=20010423
"JCO plant bosses admit guilt in radiation-leak deaths,"
Mainichi Daily News, April 23, 2001:
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20010423p2a00m0dm005002c.html
YAHOO/Kyodo news photo at
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=JCO&n=20&c=news_photos
found using various search methods on Kyodo news sites
http://home.kyodo.co.jp/
- - - April 23, 2001, 11:07 JST
6 JCO officials plead guilty to negligence charges
MITO, Japan April 23 Kyodo - Six employees of JCO Co. on Monday pleaded guilty to charges of negligence resulting in death over Japan’s worst nuclear accident in 1999 in the first hearing of their cases at the Mito District Court.
- - - PHOTO CAPTION: JCO officials plead guilty to negligence charges
April 23, MITO, Japan - Kenzo Koshijima ®, the former head of JCO Co.’s uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, enters the Mito District Court in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, on April 23. Koshijima and five other JCO employees pleaded guilty to charges of negligence resulting in death in Japan’s worst nuclear accident in 1999 during the first hearing of their cases. Two of the workers — Hisashi Ouchi, 35, and Masato Shinohara, 40 — died from radiation sickness in December 1999 and April last year, respectively. (Kyodo News)
- - - April 23 (12:57)
LEAD: JCO, 6 officials plead guilty in nuclear accident case
Lead Nuclear-JCO MITO, Japan Kyodo - Six employees of JCO Co. on Monday pleaded guilty to charges of negligence resulting in death, while JCO pleaded guilty to violating the Nuclear Reactor Regulation Law, when their trial over Japan’s worst nuclear accident in 1999 opened Monday.
— Valerie Putman