Fifth death from Mihama cooling system accident
Sadly but not unexpectedly, a fifth worker injured in the Mihama Nuclear Power Plant accident a few weeks ago has died in the ICU of multiple-organ failure. His first daughter had just been born in May. I was going to say that I hoped he never knew what hit him, but the article says that despite being burned over 80% of his body, he escaped from the site of the pipe break on his own power (自力で). The poor guy. My father was burned in a pretty nasty accident at the steel plant when I was little. I don’t remember it; he just described later going in and having the wounds scrubbed with wire brushes so they wouldn’t scar over (this was the ’70’s); that sounded bad enough. Fortunately, one of the eleven injured workers was released on Tuesday, so maybe there’s some hope for the remaining five.