March 11, 1997
Fire breaks out at an 11-million-square-foot complex in Tokaimura, Japan. The site includes a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant and laboratories 70 miles northeast of Tokyo. The fire exposes 37 workers to low-level radiation.

July 19, 1997
A reactor at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s nuclear plant complex (the world's largest nuclear power plant, northwest of Tokyo) leaks a small amount of radiation, but officials say none is released into the atmosphere.

November 20, 1997
Fire breaks out at a uranium-enrichment laboratory northeast of Tokyo. The blaze is extinguished in an hour without any injuries or radioactive leaks.
March 14, 1997
20,000-30,000 gallons of plutonium contaminated water was released when a forty gallon tank of toxic chemicals exploded. The tank had been stored illegally at the US Government's Hanford Engineers Works. It resulted in a cover up involving the contractors and the Department of Energy who denied the release of radioactive materials. they even went so far as telling workers that they had not been exposed to plutonium even though no tests had actually occurred.