Seeking to hand down lessons from Japan's first criticality accident, the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, has published an anthology of essays contributed by people involved in the Sept. 30, 1999, fatal disaster.

The accident occurred when workers at the JCO Co. nuclear fuel processing plant sidestepped, and not for the first time, safe operating procedures and mixed an excessive amount of uranium with buckets into a holding tank, triggering a nuclear chain reaction.

Around 90 contributors to "Memories to be Handed Down," including nuclear experts, local officials as well as residents of the Tokai area, share their experiences in facing the unprecedented accident and reflect on how they could have done better.