Worker at Japanese nuclear plant: We’re putting our lives on the line

[CHA2010]

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Worker at Japanese nuclear plant: We’re putting our lives on the line


A female worker at the Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) plant wrote a blog post about the battle to keep the reactors from overheating, saying the brave workers at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant were risking their lives to keep the situation under control.
Michiko Otsuki removed the post on Thursday, writing that it was being used in a way she hadn't intended. But the Singaporean site the Straits Times translated the entire statement and posted it online. The post, which Otsuki uploaded to the social networking site Mixi, has already been quoted by the Guardian, the AFP, and other international news outlets.
"In the midst of the tsunami alarm (last Friday), at 3am in the night when we couldn't even see where we going, we carried on working to restore the reactors from where we were, right by the sea, with the realisation that this could be certain death," she wrote on Tuesday. "The machine that cools the reactor is just by the ocean, and it was wrecked by the tsunami. Everyone worked desperately to try and restore it. Fighting fatigue and empty stomachs, we dragged ourselves back to work. There are many who haven't gotten in touch with their family members, but are facing the present situation and working hard."
She apologized to residents who lived near the reactors, but also noted that workers at the facility were risking their lives to place the crisis under control. "Watching my co-workers putting their lives on the line without a second thought in this situation, I'm proud to be a member of Tepco, and a member of the team behind Fukushima No. 2 reactor," she wrote.
The AP writes that a history of cover-ups and scandals in the country's nuclear energy industry has left the Japanese deeply suspicious of the plants. One worker was told to alter footage sent to regulators so they would not see radioactive steam leaking from the plant. He went public in 2000 and three Tepco execs lost their jobs.
Otsuki was one of 800 workers evacuated from the plant on Monday. Tepco said it expects workers to re-connect cables that will make the plant's cooling system work again today, Bloomberg reports. Tepco said that about 20 people had volunteered to help the skeleton team of workers at the plant, as helicopters began to dump massive amounts of water from the sky to try to cool down the reactors. A core team of workers has been rotating in and out in hopes of reducing their radiation exposure.
"I don't know any other way to say it, but this is like suicide fighters in a war," Keiichi Nakagawa, associate professor of the Department of Radiology at University of Tokyo Hospital


Source: Liz Goodwin (Associated Press)

[masakiton]

She apologized to residents who lived near the reactors, but also noted that workers at the facility were risking their lives to place the crisis under control.

mao ni sakto ... dili parihas sa ato current admin nga i tudlo dayon ang previous administration or i compare sa uban nasud

[Eiso]

mao ni sakto ... dili parihas sa ato current admin nga i tudlo dayon ang previous administration or i compare sa uban nasud

+1....

heroic move!!! Kudos sa mga workers sa Nuclear Plant.

[fackerr]

they're heroes..

[stealthghost]

they're saving millions of lives, not just human lives, plants and animals as well..

Kudos to them! I want to see them survive this ordeal and be awarded as heroes.

source: Worker at Japanese nuclear plant: We’re putting our lives on the line - Yahoo! News

[Metz]

it's part of the risk when they signed up to work in a nuclear plant.
mura rag sundalo or police.

kudos to them kay they performed their duty. if di pani sila disiplinado, daghan na tingali nanibat.

[r51d3r19]

my prayers for this people who risk their lives to save others.

bilib jud ko sa mga japanese...kalma ra jud sila nihandle ani nga situation. not like other countries nga nagkagubot. looters will flood the street mura nagpista sila. pero sa mga japanese they work hand in hand.

[Generals]

very heroic. If they dont do it, all of Japan will be at risk.

[Lord_Einaj]

Worker at Japanese nuclear plant: We’re putting our lives on the line.. panganib ang hatid nyan..

[gpcortes07]

makabilib lang sad gyud ning nationalism sa mga Japanese....

http://www.popsci.com/science/articl...uclear-cleanup

Let the young rebuild Japan, says Yasuteru Yamada, but let the old clean up the most difficult mess leftover from March’s devastating earthquake and tsunamis. The 72-year-old former engineer is recruiting other retirees to replace the younger workers currently braving radiation exposure at Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear power complex. It’s not a question of bravery or experience, he says, but one of biological logic.

Yamada tells BBC:

"I am 72 and on average I probably have 13 to 15 years left to live," he says. "Even if I were exposed to radiation, cancer could take 20 or 30 years or longer to develop. Therefore us older ones have less chance of getting cancer." Yasuteru Yamada