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Tuesday, October 12, 1999 Published at 21:48 GMT 22:48 UK
World: Asia-Pacific
Japan's nuclear crisis: Full coverage
A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrives in Japan on Wednesday to investigate the country's worst nuclear accident.
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"A frightening atmosphere in Tokaimura" - Rageh Omaar reports
![[ image: ]](/olmedia/460000/images/_462743_japan_nuclear3_150.jpg) |
Around the world, the same techniques are used for manufacturing nuclear fuel, making Tokaimura a worrying precedent for the nuclear industry world-wide.
Making nuclear fuel rods is a relatively 'safe' process, but operator error appears to have triggered a nuclear chain reaction.
The Tokaimura nuclear accident has been confirmed as the world's most serious since Chernobyl in 1986, but experts say radioactive fallout will not be widespread.
After the oil price shocks of the 1970s, Japan began to build nuclear reactors, and now depends on the industry for more than a third of its electricity.
Exposure to radiation can cause devastating damage to the immune system and to the tissues of the body.
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