A worker on the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan has died after being buried while carrying out clear-up work on the site.
The stricken plant’s operator Tepco confirmed the accident – the first work-related death on the site since the meltdown in March 2011.
The male worker, who was thought to be in his fifties, was pronounced dead early this morning after the ground gave way under him while he was breaking up concrete around a storage building to repair its foundation w
The labourer was trapping him under concrete and sediment, Tepco said. He was taken to Iwaki Kyoritsu Hospital in Fukushima where he was later pronounced dead.
The death comes less than a day after clean-up work on the plant was delayed following an accident when workmen broke the crane being used to clear the site.
Plant operator Tepco was carrying out the removal of spent fuel assemblies from a holding, but was forced to halt the operation due to faulty machinery.
According to the company’s reports, a worker started moving the crane used to lift the assemblies without disengaging the handbrake, which raised an alarm.
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority commissioners urged Tepco President Naomi Hirose at a meeting last week to prioritize plant safety and dedicate adequate funding to safety provisions.
Six plant workers were exposed to radiation in October after a hose carrying contaminated water was mistakenly detached from desalination equipment.
The clean-up of the Japanese plant, damaged in the 2011 tsunami, has been marred by a number incidents and environmental scares, including a leakage of radioactive water into the ocean late last year.
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