Whatever one thinks about the near-criminal strategy taking place behind the scenes as to how Japan is handling the bailout, one thing is certain: the 50 Tepco workers who are currently laboring at Fukushima, doing all they can to restore the plant back to life, even at the cost of their own lives, are doing a tremendous service to their fellow citizens (futile or otherwise), and deserve to be called heroes. The Mail has compiled what little information is available about these impromptu martyrs, of whom five are believed to have already died and 15 are injured while others have said they know the radiation will kill them, in a piece that everyone should read, especially those who are wondering just who it is that is doing everything in their power to offset Hitachi's criminal conduct in the construction of the power plant as disclosed earlier. "The darkness is broken only by the flashing torchlight of the heroes who stayed behind. These first images of inside the stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant reveal the terrifying conditions under which the brave men work to save their nation from full nuclear meltdown. The Fukushima Fifty - an anonymous band of lower and mid-level managers - have battled around the clock to cool overheating reactors and spent fuel rods since the disaster on March 11."
Despite sweltering heat from the damaged reactors, they must work in protective bodysuits to protect their skin from the poisonous radioactive particles that fill the air around them.
But as more radiation seeps into the atmosphere minute by minute, they know this job will be their last.
Five are believed to have already died and 15 are injured while others have said they know the radiation will kill them.
The original 50 brave souls were later joined by 150 colleagues and rotated in teams to limit their exposure to the radiation spewing from over-heating spent fuel rods after a series of explosions at the site. They were today joined by scores more workers.
Japan has rallied behind the workers with relatives telling of heart-breaking messages sent at the height of the crisis.
A woman said her husband continued to work while fully aware he was being bombarded with radiation. In a heartbreaking email, he told his wife: 'Please continue to live well, I cannot be home for a while.'
One girl tweeted in a message translated by ABC: 'My dad went to the nuclear plant, I've never seen my mother cry so hard. People at the plant are struggling, sacrificing themselves to protect you. Please dad come back alive.'
But it is becoming even more pressing that the Fukushima succeed after it was revealed today that Tokyo's tap water has been contaminated by unusual levels of radiation.
While only praise can be showered on these 50 or so volunteers for the true greater good, the biggest punishment possible should be doled out for those who knowingly let this catastrophe occur, if indeed corners were cut in the design of the NPP, and also for those who continue to lie to the population in an attempt to prevent a panic (yes, we have all heard the Mutual Assured Destruction lies of a government that does "what is best for everyone") while simply allowing an ever greater number of people to succumb to radiation poisoning or worse.
There is one poster below with a little pseudoscience backing who claims the radiation exposure is inconsequential. Assuming we trust the radiation data from a company.with a.decades long pattern of data.falsification there is still one other problem. I have worked on standards commitees before. Politics, personal beliefs, economic considerations all go into the formation of exposure limits and risk thresholds. The science behind radiation exposure data is slim and often the estimates of risk are based on extrapolation with a.good amount of guesswork by the BOGAT method ( bunch of guys around a table). I would not trust the safety threshold guestimates given to us by agencies subject to regulatory capture and a.revolving door culture. The surgeon general of.the usa is right. It is certainly reasonable to keep iodine tablets on hand on the left coast. And we are not getting any.data on radiation leakage into the surrounding waters. I dont want.any exposure greater than background level exposure and i wont be eating any fish farmed near japan (yellowtail sushi). No one is going to run a.geiger counter over japanese exports to the usa, and i will decide my own safe exposure limits. A.corrupted government agency will not.decide them for me.
Radiation exposure limits and stochastic health impacts have always been very controversial, even in the nuclear industry. For one thing, long term health impacts are difficult to encapsulate in the moment, and must be broad enough to create a statistical basis, or people like the NRC will pay little attention to them. Another thing is the variability of humans in how they react to a given exposure - short-term and stochastically, and to various radionuclides. It is a game of guessing based on limited and not well understood information. Trying to set a standard for radiation workers is one thing - although still far from adequate, but attempting to set them for a populace in a way that is "individual safe" is absolute nonsense. There are so many factors and variables....types of radiation, differing contamination types, levels and exposure means...even diet has shown to have a significant impact on how an individual reacts to ingested contamination, that setting wide ranging standards can only be achieved by a juggling of numbers that has shown in the past to have little correlation to reality. Thus, since I worked in the field, exposure limits have dropped dramatically, and will continue to do so. I personally have no fear of significant exposure above background levels, but that is a personal thing, and I can understand anyone who does not want that. Sometimes I might think I understand this stuff pretty well, but, it is telling that I would not trust my own judgement for maximum safe exposures when it comes to my one year old granddaughter. Nuff said.
In regards to your post Red, everything at the nuclear plant worked exactly to it's design. The problem came when the tsunami knocked out the fuel tanks for the backup power supply that kept the coolant systems running.
Just a little something that everybody needs to know. Nuclear power shouldn't get a bad rap because mother nature decided to F*** things up
9.0 quakes are 100 year events. May the lord protect and keep these heros trying to fix reactors that gave the quality of life electricity gives to millions.
Fuel. Innocent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-qEd9eatO8
Also, may the lord protect and keep the hundreds of gold miners who predictably die every year hauling a shiny metal out of the ground so that it can sit in a vault for the next 1000 years. never being seen or touched by the people who "own" it.
Lynard Skynyrd. Simple Man. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHQ_aTjXObs
wtf?
Did a bunch of comments at the top just disappear?
nope, you probably just logged in.
Why?
I've looked at the photographs and have cried. I've read the thread and have thought about some of the comments, asking the question: would I make this sacrifice? Yes, I would. How could anyone not? I think of the first responders at Ground Zero, unconcerned for their own safety. We've witnessed many acts of heroism and there's no doubt, we'll see more. Man must learn to achieve balance not just among his species but also with all species, with nature, the solar system.
True heroes.
No doubt true heroes.
Meanwhile several top level execs, who signed off on short cuts despite warnings, are somewhere far, far away in the CYA galaxy.
as i read more actual reporting on what is happening i keep thinking about the piece on cnbc/msnbc the morning of march 23, 2011. an nuclear scientist came on to answer questions about why this was a non issue. he proceeded to say that there was no issue as the radiation measured was only slightly above what we are exposed to in the atmosphere. however they declined to inform the view that the amount we are exposed to in a year and the amount he quoted was an hourly rate. that absolutely pissed me off. i mean, how can you lie so blatantly? an hourly rate compared to an annual rate. it was astounding. the anchor then asked a very concerned question about the workers trying to stave off a full meltdown. the expert then says this is also not an issue sense TEPCO raised the exposure amount by 100%, meaning that the workers were ok to get a larger dose. i mean, fucking seriously? thats the answer? he then states that TEPCO is rotating groups of 50 men through the area and they have a total of 1000 men working, so no one will be hurt by the exposure. it is digusting to me to see these kinds of lies on tv when they are so easily fact checked and discovered to be completely false with the aid of google. its infuriating.
Wow,
The Daily Mail as a reference. That's less factual than the Onion. The only difference is that the mail editors think what they are saying is true.
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secret method of killing your BUSINESS that was so secret that nobody knew they did it. This is because if the STASI kills a bunch of dissidents' overtly, then their dead guys surviving friends and families could piece together what was in common among the dead that the STASI used to spy on them.
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It was the fault of the Japanese for allowing such a reactor to be built in that location without additional safety measures being required. That's the real story here. That and the shitty enforcement of already lax safety standards.
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The currency has not moved all that much with the inflation.
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