Worker at Japan's tsunami-hit nuclear plant dies

 

(AP) The operator of Japan's tsunami-wrecked nuclear power plant said a contract worker in his 60s died Saturday after collapsing at the facility's waste disposal building, adding that his body showed no signs of dangerous levels of radioactivity.

   The man was carrying equipment at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant when he collapsed. He died later in hospital, said Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Naoyuki Matsumoto.

   The company does not know the cause of his death, Matsumoto said. The man had begun working Friday at the waste disposal building, which stores radioactive-contaminated water that has leaked from the plant's tsunami-crippled reactors.

   He had been wearing a radiation protection suit, mask and gloves, and no radioactivity at harmful levels was detected in his body, the spokesman said.

   The Fukushima plant lost its power and cooling systems in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, triggering fires, explosions and radiation leaks in the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.