It amazes me that after all the things that went wrong in Fukushima, the workers are still partially blamed for their own injuries. Excuse me, folks, this is just the biggest BS I have ever heard. These are men who are trying to do everything to protect their own people, their own country, repairing and fixing whatever they can - and all at the cost of their own lives – you don’t really think that these men, these heroes really, will enjoy a nice long retirement. With the incredible radiation they are exposed to, they know that they have signed their death certificate. They are giving their lives for others. And Tepco is trying to tell us the burn injuries are partially their own fault?
(CNN) – “The water three men were exposed to while working at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had 10,000 times the amount of radiation typical for that locale, an official with the Japan nuclear and industrial safety agency said Friday. The contamination is likely from the No. 3 reactor's core, the official, Hidehiko Nishiyama said. He said there's a possibility of "some sort of leakage" -- including potentially from a crack in the unit's containment vessel.
The incident raised questions about radiation control measures at the plant as 536 people -- including government authorities and firefighters continued working there Friday, according to an official with the plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Workers are undertaking various measures to prevent the further release of radioactive substances into the air and beyond.
Some 17 people already have been exposed to 100 or more millisieverts of radiation since the plant's crisis began two weeks ago after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck.
A person in an industrialized country is naturally exposed to 3 millisieverts of radiation a year. But Japan's health ministry recently raised the maximum level of exposure for a person working to address the crisis at the nuclear plant from 100 millisieverts to 250 millisieverts per year” (http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/25/japan.nuclear.reactors/index.html?hpt=T1).
Spiegel. De (http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,753058,00.html. 03.25.11) indicates that Tepco says that the injuries the workers received who were exposed to the radioactive water in reactor block 3 were partially their own fault (!). Tepco claims that the workers had measuring devices but ignored the alarm. On Thursday the men had been working in the lower floor of the turbine building of reactor block 3. The day before there had been no water and no increased radiation. Therefore, they were not wearing special protective high work boots, and the water was seeping into their work shoes. Two of the three workers were transported to a special clinic as they had burn injuries. Today they will be transported from the hospital in Fukushima to the city of Chiba south of Tokyo – to the national institute for radiation research.
Isn’t it very interesting that Japan’s health ministry suddenly decided to raise the maximum level of exposure more than 100% - simply to make the exposure seem to be not as lethal as before? Like in so many instances, these are attempts to cover up the safety issues that were ignored over a long period of time, and now it is the man on the street, the workers, the people of Japan that are suffering and will continue to suffer, simply because at one point in time it was too “expensive” and “inconvenient” to pre-plan for the worst-case-scenario and be satisfied with mediocre safety precautions.
And, let’s face it. The radioactivity is spreading to the US, Iceland and Europe. Maybe the levels are indeed very low, but let’s not forget that even if the reactors will be cooled and there is not immediate danger of meltdowns, they will continue to emit radiation until they are enclosed. This means that radioactivity will continuously be released and spread across our globe.
And if you believe that this can only happen in Japan, because we here in the US are so much more safety oriented, let me remind you of Hanford, WA.
Meike Patten, MPSafetyTraining
In July 2011, Naoto Kan said that Japan must build a new Japan based on Solar energy and Wind energy, just like Germany is doing. "We must scrap the plan to have nuclear power." Kan told a government panel. Kan said Japan should abandon plans to build 14 new reactors by 2030. Kan passed a bill to promote Feed-In tariffs, to shift power generation to home based solar roof tops, as the major source of solar power. That way, the energy is collected right where it is needed. This eliminates the middleman. Japan can be 100% powered by solar, wind & renewables by 2041.
ReplyDeleteIn 2012, Kan said the Fukushima disaster made it clear to him that "Japan needs to eliminate nuclear power, and has turned him into a major advocate of Solar & renewable energy".
Kan announced his intention to resign on August 26, 2011, with passage of the Feed-In tariff energy bill as a final condition. This gives homeowners & farmers the power to harvest solar & wind and feed it into the grid. This gives small produces of green energy priority. This pushes nuclear energy totally off the grid. This will eliminate all the large utilities like Tepko, and give economic power to homeowners & farmers who have Solar.
At the same time Seiji Maehara, who had supported Kan in 2010, was reported to have announced his intention to run to succeed Kan.
Youtube: paul8kangas