FUKUI, Japan, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- A Japanese nuclear power plant accident claimed a fifth victim Wednesday, when a man who had been in critical condition died in a hospital in Fukui.
The victim, Masaru Kameiwa, had been exposed to scalding steam during the Aug. 9 accident, Mainichi Shimbun reported. Kameiwa was an employee of a subcontractor of the Kansai Electric Power Co..
The accident occurred at the No. 3 reactor of KEPCO's Mihama Nuclear Power Plant in Mihama.
Scalding steam gushed from a turbine pipe in the secondary system of the reactor, and filled the structure that houses it.
Four workers died and seven others, including Kameiwa, were injured after being exposed to the steam.
All 11 were employees of Kiuchi Keisoku, an Osaka-based subcontractor commissioned by KEPCO to check the Mihama plant.
Inspections of the reactor showed the pipe had worn alarmingly thin. The steam was not radioactive.
