Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/1999/10/01/post_nuclear_blast_hitachi_reopens/

Post Nuclear Blast Hitachi re-opens DRAM plant

Update: DRAM Chain reaction

By Team Register

Posted in On-Prem, 1st October 1999 09:58 GMT

Hitachi has re-opened semiconductor and car-parts manufacture at eight plants, following yesterday's nuclear disaster in Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture, 90 miles north of Tokyo. The company said it had lost half a day's production of 64Mb DRAM -- but said this would have a minimal effect on prices. Hitachi employs 13,000 people at plants in the district, according to Dow Jones. The nuclear leak at Tokaimura has now stabilised, Japanese officials say, and 300,000 people living in the area around the plant have been told that they can now leave their homes. A 350-metre exclusion zone around the plant remains in force. Human error was to blame for the nuclear leak. Workers poured too much enriched uranium solution into a tank, which then exploded, setting off a chain reaction lasting many hours. At its peak, radiation levels soared to 15,000 normal levels Thirty workers were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation and two are critically ill. They will receive bone marrow transplants, in an attempt to save their lives. ®