In 1999, Japanese nuclear scientists Hisashi Ouchi, Masato Shinohara, and Yutaka Yokokawa were working on a fast breeder reactor, a type of nuclear reactor that can create more fissile material than it consumes. Ouchi made a series of mistakes, including adding a mixture of chemicals and 16 kilograms of uranium to a tank with a maximum uranium limit of 2.4 kilograms. This led to a nuclear chain reaction, causing a blinding flash of blue light and the emission of Cherenkov radiation. Ouchi was exposed to an incredible 17 sieverts of radiation, more than twice the lethal dose and 300 times the annual dose allowed for nuclear plant engineers. The radiation destroyed all of his chromosomes, making him the only human being to ever live with no DNA in his body. It also almost completely destroyed all of his white blood cells and covered most of his body in third-degree burns. Despite the doctors' best efforts, Ouchi's body began to disintegrate from the inside out, and he died on December 21st, 1999, due to organ failure. Shinohara and Yokokawa also suffered severe radiation exposure, but Shinohara died of multiple organ failure in April 1999, while Yokokawa survived but was later charged with criminal negligence.
1. The incident occurred in 1999 and involved Japanese nuclear scientists Hisashi Ouchi, Masato Shinohara, and Yutaka Yokokawa.
2. The scientists were mixing a batch of fuel for a fast breeder reactor, a type of nuclear reactor that can create more fissile material than it consumes.
3. The reactor is typically used to aid in nuclear research, as it can quickly and efficiently create large quantities of nuclear material to fuel conventional reactors.
4. Ouchi was standing next to a large metal tank, to which he was adding a mixture of various chemicals and 16 kilograms of uranium.
5. Shinohara was standing on a platform, overlooking the work, while Yokokawa was sitting at a desk busying himself with paperwork.
6. Ouchi unknowingly dumped the entire mixture into the tank, exceeding the tank's maximum uranium limit of 2.4 kilograms.
7. This action set in motion one of the worst civilian nuclear accidents in history.
8. The walls of the tank reflected neutrons being released by the uranium atoms, causing the neutrons to bounce back and strike other uranium atoms, splitting them and releasing even more neutrons.
9. Within nanoseconds, the precipitation tank became a fully working nuclear reactor.
10. Ouchi was blasted with an incredible seventeen sieverts of radiation, or a whopping 300 times the annual dose allowed for nuclear plant engineers, and more than twice what is believed to be a lethal dose.
11. Ouchi's body was completely destroyed by the radiation, making him the only human being to ever live with no DNA in his body.
12. The radiation also almost completely destroyed all of his white blood cells, and covered most of his body in third-degree burns.
13. The radiation was so intense that it even burned the skin on the side of his body facing away from the tank.
14. Ouchi was so disoriented by the radioactive blast that he immediately vomited into the precipitation tank, and then managed to stagger backwards.
15. The three men barely managed to stumble into the decontamination chamber, where Ouchi immediately passed out.
16. Ouchi was rushed to the local hospital, and treatment began to try and save their lives.
17. Ouchi was in critical condition, and was flown to a better equipped hospital in the Chiba prefecture.
18. By the time he got there, his skin had almost completely fallen off his body, and with no skin any fluids he received quickly leaked out from his pores.
19. To keep him hydrated, Ouchi had to be given fluids by IV twenty-four seven, with the majority of those fluids simply leaking out of his body and soaking the bed.
20. The doctors treating Ouchi knew that he would not survive, no living being could possibly survive the radiation dose he just suffered.
21. They made a controversial decision though, and decided that whether Ouchi liked it or not, he is now going to serve as a guinea pig for treating radiation illness.
22. Ouchi was given a transplant from his sister who is a willing donor.
23. At first this seemed to work, and Ouchi's white blood cell count starts to recover.
24. However his body is so poisoned by radiation, that his own flesh destroys the new white blood cells.
25. Completely helpless to infection, Ouchi is quarantined and sealed off from the world in a special suite.
26. Twenty-seven days after the accident, Ouchi's body begins to disintegrate from the inside out.
27. He has been unable to regrow new skin, and in a bid to keep him from losing liquids through his body's pores, he's been wrapped in linen bandages.
28. Daily skin transplants are being done yet the transplants simply won't take, and slough off.
29. The muscles of his body start to peel off his bones.
30. Inside his body, his organs begin to simply come apart, as Ouchi liquefies from the inside out.
31. At this point, Ouchi is nothing more than a skeleton with a few