Two Worker Deaths Reported at Fukushima Cleanup

Two worker deaths have occurred the past two days in separate incidents at the Fukushima Daii-chi cleanup site, the Tokyo Electric Power Company announced yesterday. The deaths brings the total work fatalities at the site to three in the past year after a worker died from falling rubble while digging a ditch last March. The first death occurred on Jan. 19 when an employee of a cooperative company, Hazama Ando Corp., according to a Reuters report, fell approximately 10 meters from the top plate of a water receptacle plant which he was installing, but no radioactive material was found on his body. The second death occurred yesterday when another worker of an unidentified cooperative company was injured while inspecting the concentration apparatus on the 5th floor of the Units 1 and 2 waste treatment facility. “We pray that [their] souls rest in peace and express our sincere condolences to the family,” TEPCO said in a statement. “TEPCO will investigate the cause of the accident in detail and will rededicate ourselves to future accident prevention.”