Joshua Nair 30 Jan 24, https://www.ladbible.com/news/world-news/tokaimura-nuclear-disaster-japan-366945-20240130
A man died in excruciating pain, 'crying blood' as his 'skin melted', reportedly begging doctors to stop treating him.
Hisashi Ouchi was a technician at the Tokaimura Nuclear Power Plant, about 90 miles northwest of Tokyo.
Disaster struck in 1999 when three workers attempted to pour uranium into a huge metal vat.
Ouchi was helping a colleague with the dangerous task, but due to a miscalculation, the harmful liquid reached 'critical point', releasing dangerous neutron radiation and gamma rays into the building.
Unfortunately, none of the men involved in the delicate process were trained to carry it out, as it was later discovered that it involved 16kg of uranium, 13.6kg over the limit.
Reports state that, due to the fact that workers were manually carrying out the procedure, there was no way of measuring how much was being transferred.
Ouchi got exposed to more radiation than the other workers, suffering burns, becoming dizzy, and violently vomiting.
The 35-year-old's nightmare was only getting started though.
It was discovered that Ouchi had absorbed 17 Sieverts (sv) of radiation, which is still the highest amount of radiation taken on by a single living person, around twice the amount that should kill someone.
For comparison, emergency responders at Chernobyl were exposed to just 0.25 sv.
After he was rushed to the University of Tokyo Hospital, the area surrounding the plant was put into lockdown.
Doctors discovered that there were no white blood cells in Ouchi's body, and that he was in desperate need of extensive skin grafts and multiple blood transfusions.
Exposure to the dangerous substance reportedly left him 'crying blood', bleeding from his eyeballs.
Doctors desperately tried to keep him alive, but Ouchi begged them to stop just a week into treatment.
Ouchi reportedly yelled: "I can't take it any more! I am not a guinea pig!"
However, at the request of his family, doctors were able to get it started again.
But on 21 December that year, Ouchi's body eventually gave out and he died as a result of multiple organ failure.
The technicians' supervisor, Yutaka Yokokawa, also received treatment, but was released after three months with minor radiation sickness, before going on to face charges of negligence in October 2000.
Nuclear fuel company JCO later paid $121 million to settle 6,875 compensation claims from people and businesses who had suffered from or been exposed to radiation from the accident.
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