After the Light of the JCO Criticality Accident Fades, Tokai-mura Continues to Stare at the Shadow 1999-2011

After the Light of the JCO Criticality Accident Fades, Tokai-mura Continues to Stare at the Shadow 1999-2011
A faint tremor still lingers in the air of Tokai-mura when talking about the JCO criticality accident in 1999, the first criticality accident in postwar Japan, which occurred suddenly due to a combination of omissions in work procedures and organizational complacency. Emergency broadcasts echoed through the quiet village in the middle of the day, urgent voices called for people to evacuate indoors, and the numbers on the dosimeters rose. Invisible fear dissolved into the wind, and the lives of the residents began to creak from that moment on. What the accident revealed was not the fault of a single company, but the breakdown caused by society's assumption at the time that nuclear power was safe and inexpensive. Regulations and audits became a skeleton, the culture of safety faded, and the principles that the nation was supposed to uphold unknowingly crumbled.

Later investigations revealed that the accidents were not attributable to specific individuals. The accident was inexorably drawn together by the multiple layers of weaknesses in the workforce shortages, overcrowded work processes, safety management left to the site, and the stove-piped organization. Even after the accident, the local residents were still being bombarded with confusing administrative explanations and uncertain information, and had to live with the shadow of "radiation" right in the background of their daily lives. The words "We will never forget," which are used at the rally, are imbued with both the horror of that day and the pain left behind by the post-accident response.

Furthermore, the memory of the accident, combined with the presence of the nearby Tokai Daini Nuclear Power Plant, has cast a darker shadow as time goes by. Whenever the restart of the aging nuclear power plant comes up on the agenda, the memories of the JCO accident and the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident overlap, and the residents' hearts tighten. The Fukushima accident turned a "distant concern" into a "real threat" for Tokai-mura and revealed internationally the flaws in Japan's nuclear administration. Regulatory independence, weak safety culture, and inadequate evacuation planning. These issues continue to lie at the root of the debate over the Tokai Daini Nuclear Power Plant.

The call to remember the JCO criticality accident is not only a mourning for the past, but also a wake-up call to protect the future. What should the nation prioritize and whom should it protect? The brief flash of light from the criticality accident still wavers quietly at the feet of nuclear energy policy more than 20 years later, posing long-standing questions to society.