Short Stuff: Hisashi Ouchi | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm. [music] Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry. sitting in for Dave and this is Short. Stuff, a really sad edition. >> Yeah, for sure. Uh cuz this is about a. nuclear accident and uh one. very famous victim of that accident, uh. a man in Japan named uh Hisashi Ouchi, >> Mhm. >> who at the time was a 35-year-old um. worker at a at a nuclear facility and he.

got a massive uh blast of radiation in. 1999. Uh it was called a criticality accident. and uh where What was the uh What was. the name of the town? >> Uh in uh Tokaimura. >> Tokaimura, okay, great. >> Yeah. Or no, Tokaimura, sorry. Um and that's called the Tokaimura. nuclear accident is what it's called. And like you said, it was a criticality. because. um. there wasn't like a nuclear explosion or.

anything like that. It was an. uncontrolled nuclear fission reaction. that these guys accidentally created. while they were doing their job. processing uranium oxide into usable. uranium 235 fuel to be used in an actual. nuclear reactor reactor. This is not a. nuclear plant. Um it was a the kind of. plant that produces fuel for nuclear. plants. >> That's right. Uh this is the morning of. September 30th, 1999. and uh what they specifically were doing.

in that moment was they were dissolving. that uranium oxide like you were saying. Uh and and this was the procedure um. What I'm describing now is the approved. procedure, actually. >> Right. >> So, they were supposed to have dissolved. that uranium oxide in a geometrically. safe vessel. And then what you end up with is uh. uranyl nitrate solution and you put that. into a buffer tank and then transfer um. you know, little bits of that into a. precipitation tank.

Uh, this company, um, is it JCO is the name of the company? >> Yeah. >> They said, all right, we're going to. speed this up, and this procedure is not. approved, um, but we what we want you to. guys to do is mix the solution in. stainless steel buckets, and then pour. it directly into the precipitation tank. >> And not only pour it directly in the. precipitation tank, pour so much in there that we have. like five to six times the approved. amount in that precipitation tank at.

once, right? >> I think it's like seven times. >> Okay, a lot, a lot more than was. supposed to be in there. And I just want. to point out, like you were saying, there was an approved procedure and JCO. said nuts to that, we're going to do. this faster, what, right? That's just. what they were doing with their workers. It's crazy because this is nuclear. uranium 235 fuel that they're making. And so, when they put in these three. workers, including Hisashi Ouchi, when. they put in the seventh bucket of this.

stuff into the directly into the. precipitation tank, there were 16.6. kilos or 36.6 pounds of uranium in. there, which is way more than was. allowed to be in there. I think it was. 2.4 keys or kilograms, um, that was. allowed to be in there. And they had. 16.6, Chuck. >> Yeah, so that reached critical mass. pretty quickly and started. self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. And like you said, it wasn't like, uh, an explosion or anything like that, but.

it was a a huge burst of neutron and. gamma radiation, like Incredible Hulk. levels. >> Yeah. >> And it went on and off for about 20. hours until the emergency workers. finally drained water from the, uh, tank's cooling jacket, and then added. boric acid to absorb the neutrons. Uh, but, uh, you know, very sadly, Ouchi. received a dose equivalent of, uh, 17. sieverts. Uh, it's it's kind of hard to like get. an exact calculation, but it was an.

incredibly large amount of radiation, like so much that they have he's been. called the most, uh, radioactive man in history, um, which is. a bit of a misnomer cuz he had this. burst of radiation, but it's not like he. was walking around like. radioactive to other people or anything. like that. >> Which is a little surprising to me, but. okay. We'll we'll I'll take that. I did. a little bit of, uh, Josh math here, Chuck. >> Oh, boy. >> Well, it's not even Josh math, it's more. Josh checking. Um, so you said that, uh, Ouchi received 17.

sieverts of radiation, right? >> Okay. >> [laughter]. >> Yeah. So, one. >> at that. I'm laughing at your math, by. the way. >> No, I understand. >> Yeah. >> One millirem is equal to 0.00001. sieverts, okay? >> Okay. >> You get 20 millirems from a chest x-ray. >> Okay. >> 17 sieverts all at once. >> Wow. >> Do you I mean, that's just such a. mind-boggling amount of radiation that I.

can't believe he didn't die immediately. Um, I say we take a break and come back. and talk about Ouchi's agonizing 83 days. of life that followed that radiation. exposure. >> All right, we'll be right back. >> [music]. [music].

[music]. >> So, Chuck, before we broke, I was saying. I was surprised that he didn't die. immediately. >> Yeah. >> The reason he didn't die immediately was. cuz it takes a little while for the. incredible damage that the radiation did. to his body to actually um. to take effect. And but what it did essentially was it. blasted through every cell in Hisashi. Ouchi's body and damaged the DNA inside.

so much so that the uh doctors caring. for him said that he um had completely. or the radiation had completely. shattered his chromosomes. The actual packets that hold the DNA in. your cells were just shattered. They. couldn't find uh uh chromosomal. structures throughout his body that. weren't just totally messed up. >> Yeah, uh we should mention there were. three guys um in the immediate area. He. was the one closest to the tank. Uh.

there was another guy um a little less. close to the tank, and then I guess the. third guy even less close to the tank. >> Mhm. >> Um Ouchi was taken to a local hospital. at first, obviously like very quickly, and then transferred to the National. Institute of Radiological Sciences in. Chiba. Uh but then eventually would end. up at the University of Tokyo Hospital. for some really extensive specialized. uh treatment. Specialized meaning like. they had no road map for this, so they. were kind of trying anything. >> Exactly.

Um they uh got in touch with his sister. who was like, "Hey, um. he is not really able to produce new. uh white blood cells, basically any. fast-growing, fast-regenerating cell. What it took the the damage the most, and that's where it showed up first. because those are the cells that are. dividing, and now that their DNA is. messed up, they're dividing in all sorts. of terrible ways. >> Mhm. >> So the things that made up like the. lining to his gut, those fast-dividing. cells, they started to show problems. first. His skin, um and then his bone.

marrow that produces blood white blood. cells, red blood cells, all sorts of. really important stuff, that was. probably the biggest problem because he. was. very vulnerable to infection without a. bunch of white blood cells or not. producing correct ones anymore. So, they. went to his sister and said, "Hey, can. you donate some some bone marrow?" And. she did. >> Yeah, so um you know, like I said, they. were trying blood transfusions at first. Um stem cell transplants, and that's.

where his sister came into play. And initially it it showed like that. transplant produced some new white blood. cells, but very quickly uh they started. getting damaged and you know, basically in the same way. He was just. so riddled with it. And his skin and his his intestinal. lining couldn't regenerate normally. Um. he had to constantly get fluids like. replaced all throughout his body. He was. on respiratory support. Um and like.

organ failure started to set in. >> Yeah. So, the guy who was second closest when. that radiation blast went off, his name. was Masato Shinohara, and he died from. his uh injuries in 2000, April 2000. But. about 4 months before, on December 21st, 1999, Hisashi Ouchi died at the. University of Tokyo Hospital. And it had. been 83 days since uh he had uh. undergone that blast of radiation. And.

so, of course this made really big news. around Japan and around the world. Like. this this is nuts that anybody even. lasted that long, let alone just the. grislyness of the whole thing. So, everybody was like, "How did this happen. at all?" And they started looking at. JCO, and turns out JCO was a terrible. terrible company that had no business. um doing something as as um important. and and uh. dangerous as nuclear fuel production. >> Yeah, for sure. Uh that third worker.

survived, by the way, out of the three. Um but yeah, JCO had allowed a lot of. shortcuts to happen. Um like you said those the instructions. just for this were uh that wasn't the. approved procedure. Um there was not a. lot of regulatory approval going on. Um. the workers didn't have um safety. training that they needed. Uh the. facility didn't have a critical incident. alarm, which is crazy. Uh they just I guess they thought that. like there wouldn't be that kind of. accident there. >> That's what happened at Three Mile.

Island, hubris. >> Yeah, that's right. That same thing. Uh. they also weren't conducting the kind of. inspections routinely that they needed. to. Uh and that might have turned up like, "Hey, this process that we're using is. like really unsafe and we should be. using the approved process.". >> So, I just want to point out, I think. it's probably clear, but I just want to. make 100% clear. These three workers. were not taking their own shortcut. They. were doing the procedure that their. company was telling them to, which was a. dangerous shortcut. So, the dangerous. shortcut was official company procedure,

right? >> Yeah. So, as far as the official like um. blame or whatever, the International. Atomic Energy Agency uh said it was. human error combined with uh serious. breaches of safety principles. Uh for JCO's part, they uh in 2003, six. of the officials. got suspended prison sentences for. professional negligence. Uh the company. was fined and they couldn't they they. had shut down the plant, didn't they? >> They did. They I think it was the first. time ever that a company lost its um.

license to to enrich nuclear fuel in. Japan. >> Yeah. >> And then also there were like, you know, these safety inspectors that didn't do. the proper inspections that would have. turned up that uh issue with the. different procedure. Um they fell down, too. So, Japan really kind of bulked up. its. nuclear stuff and now everything's. great. >> Yeah, I mean, you know, it exposed like. what could happen. And uh I think with every time we do. something like this like.

it's like they're very sad stories, but. it seems like they come out on the other. side with like, all right, now we're. trying to do it right. Don't you think? >> Yeah, I think because in this case JCO I. maybe wasn't powerful enough to try to. fight having [music] to change, so it. did end up for the best. >> Yeah. >> Do you have anything else? >> Uh I got nothing else. >> Well, then I say you give it to them. >> Stuff you should know. >> Stuff you should know is a production of. I Heart Radio. For more podcasts [music].

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