A worker at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan has died after falling inside a water storage tank, the facility’s operator said.
The man was preparing to test for leaks inside the 10-meter high tank on Monday morning, local time, when he fell, according to a statement from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).
He was taken to hospital and pronounced dead shortly after.
“We sincerely pray for the person who passed away and offer our deepest condolences to the family,” the company said in a statement on its website. It also announced that an investigation is now underway.
This is the second fatal accident in less than a year at the site, which suffered catastrophic damage in 2011 after a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the region causing the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
In March last year, a contractor at the site died after a trench he was working in caved in, burying him. According to a statement from TEPCO, the man was one of a group of workers involved in the repair of foundation piles at an empty container storage facility. To access the piles, a two-meter-deep trench had been dug on the north side of the building.
TEPCO said radiation played no role in either accident.
The Fukushima site and much the area around it remains a desolate wasteland three years after the nuclear meltdown, which contaminated the water and soil with radioactive material. Workers in protective clothing have had to brave hazardous conditions as they try to slowly and painstakingly take the plant apart — a process that is expected to take decades.
