Analysis of causes of criticality accidents at nuclear fuel processing facilities in foreign countries similarities to the criticality accident at JCO's uranium processing plant

摘要

On September 30, 1999, a criticality accident occurred at the JCO's uranium processing plant, which resulted in the first nuclear accident involving a fatality, in Japan, and forced the residents in the vicinity of the site to be evacuated and be sheltered indoors. Before the JCO accident, 21 criticality accidents have been reported at nuclear fuel processing facilities in foreign countries. The present paper describes the overall trends observed in the 21 accidents and discusses the sequences and causes of the accidents analyzed in terms of similarities to the JCO accident. Almost all of them occurred with the uranium or plutonium solution and in vessels/tanks with unfavorable geometry. In some cases, the problems similar to those observed in the JCO accident were identified violations of procedures and/or technical specifications for improving work efficiencies, procedural changes without any application to and permission from the regulatory body, lack of understanding of criticality hazards, and complacency that a criticality accident would not occur.