Saturday, May 14, 2011

A third worker dies at Japan's troubled nuclear plant - Cause unknown

"(Reuters) - A worker at Japan's tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant died on Saturday, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said, bringing the death toll at the complex to three since a massive earthquake and tsunami in March.

The cause of the death was unknown. The man, in his 60s, was employed by one of Tokyo Electric's contractors and started working at the plant on Friday. He was exposed to 0.17 millisieverts of radiation on Saturday, Tokyo Electric said.

The Japanese government's maximum level of exposure for male workers at the plant is 250 millisieverts for the duration of the effort to bring it under control.

The worker fell ill 50 minutes after starting work at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday (2100 GMT on Friday) and brought to the plant's medical room unconscious."

Was it due to heat exhaustion, a pre-existing medical condition exacerbated by difficult working conditions at the plant, or unknown and unaccounted for exposures to radiation?  The latter seems the least likely, but they better find the cause of death, and fast.

Read the story here

Update: Suspected cause of death is heart attack

1 comment :

  1. Another news says "The worker fell ill 50 minutes after starting work at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday (2100 GMT on Friday) and brought to the plant's medical room unconscious". Whoa. that was fast.
    He didn't last a day there

    ReplyDelete