Hisashi Ouchi met with a tragic mishap at the Tokaimura nuclear power station in Japan in 1999, enduring extensive injuries and beginning to bleed from his eyes before his suffering came to an end.
On September 30, 1999, Hisashi Ouchi was subjected to approximately 17 sieverts of radiation. Situated in Tokai Village, Japan, about 110 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, Ouchi was employed at a facility that handled nuclear fuel.
Upon arrival at the University of Tokyo Hospital following his exposure to the highest level of radiation ever encountered by a human, doctors were astounded.
The 35-year-old technician at the nuclear power plant had almost no white blood cells, leading to a compromised immune system. Subsequently, he began hemorrhaging as his flesh disintegrated.
The Japan Nuclear Fuel Conversion Co. (JCO) instructed Ouchi and two colleagues to blend a new batch of fuel, despite the lack of safety measures and numerous dangerous shortcuts.
The trio manually combined the components without any formal training in the procedure.
As a result, they inadvertently poured seven times the correct amount of uranium into the wrong tank. Ouchi was directly over the vessel as gamma rays permeated the space.
Ouchi began his remarkable ordeal while the plant and the nearby villages were still being evacuated.
Kept in a separate radiation ward to shield him from hospital-acquired infections, Hisashi Ouchi suffered the loss of his mother.
Hisashi Ouchi and his colleagues were transferred to the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba amidst the plant evacuation.
Being in close proximity to the fuel, all of them were immediately exposed to radiation, though to varying extents.
The sole survivor among the team was their supervisor, Yutaka Yokokawa, who had been exposed to three sieverts.
While Masato Shinohara was exposed to 10 sieverts, Hisashi Ouchi, positioned directly over the steel bucket, received 17 sieverts, the highest amount of radiation ever endured by a human.
He experienced excruciating pain, breathing difficulties, violent vomiting, and unconsciousness upon arrival at the hospital.
Covered in radiation burns with his eyes bleeding, Hisashi Ouchi suffered frequent cardiac arrests, requiring resuscitation by his relatives. His only release came 83 harrowing days later with a fatal heart failure.
Hisashi Ouchi’s Employment at the Tokaimura Nuclear Power Plant
Born in Japan in 1965, Hisashi Ouchi embarked on his career in the nuclear energy sector during a critical period for his country.
Just four years before his birth, Japan had turned to nuclear energy production due to its scarce natural resources and expensive dependency on imported energy.
As a consequence, the nation’s first commercial nuclear power plant was established.
Owing to the ample available land, the site of the power plant in Tokaimura was ideal, resulting in a sprawling complex of nuclear reactors, research facilities, fuel enrichment plants, and disposal sites.
