The government plans to oblige nuclear plant workers to report accidents above certain levels within 15 minutes to bodies including the Prime Minister's Office and the Science and Technology Agency, it was announced Friday.
The revised basic antidisaster plan, compiled by the governmental Central Disaster Prevention Council, requires officials at nuclear power, fabrication, reprocessing and storage plants, as well as those transporting radioactive materials, to contact government bodies within 15 minutes of learning of an accident.
The council, headed by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, began reviewing the plan following Japan's worst nuclear accident in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, in September, which claimed the lives of two nuclear workers and exposed at least 439 people to radiation, including 207 local residents.