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The Fukushima 50: Not afraid to die
CBS News ^ | March 15, 2011 | Jim Axelrod

Posted on 03/15/2011 5:20:23 PM PDT by Eyes Unclouded

Since the disaster struck in Japan, about 800 workers have been evacuated from the damaged nuclear complex in Fukushima. The radiation danger is that great.

However, CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod reports that a handful have stayed on the job, risking their lives, to try to save the lives of countless people they don't even know.

Although communication with the workers inside the nuclear plant is nearly impossible, a CBS News consultant spoke to a Japanese official who made contact with one of the 50 inside the control center.

The official said that his friend, one of the Fukushima 50, told him that he was not afraid to die, that that was his job.

Cham Dallas, who led teams responding to the Chernobyl disaster, said that kind of response is not out of the normal for some workers in the nuclear energy sector.

"(In) my experience of people in the action area of nuclear power is much like that," Dallas said.

The 50 are working amid decreasing but still dangerously high levels of radiation.

"The longer they stay the more dangerous it becomes for them," said expert Margaret Harding. "I think it is a testament to their guts for them to say, 'We'll stay and if that means we go, we go.'"

If the contamination threat isn't contained in a few weeks, finding enough workers willing to face the risks could become a crucial challenge.

Dallas said he expects that in that scenario, the Japanese energy authorities may have to find volunteers willing to undergo similar dangers, which will be hard to do, but not impossible.

Keep in mind they'd be volunteering to head into a place so potentially dangerous, that anyone within 20 miles of it was just asked to evacuate.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Japan; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bravery; earthquake; fukushima; japan; tsunami
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To: Eyes Unclouded

The very definition of the word “hero.”


41 posted on 03/15/2011 5:53:52 PM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: Eyes Unclouded

For whatever reason this made me think of the poem by
Alfred, Lord Tennyson “The Charge of the Light Birgade”:
````````````````````````````````````````````````
Half a league, half a league, half a league onward,
Into the valley of death rode the six hundred,
Forward, you the light brigade; charge for the guns he said,
Into the valley of death rode the six hundred.

Forward, you the Light Brigade!
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew some one had blundered,
Theirs was not to make reply,
Theirs was not to reason why,
Theirs was but to do or die,
Into the valley of death rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them, cannon in front of them,
Volleyed & thundered; stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well, into the jaws of death,
Into the mouth of hell rode the six hundred.
````````````````````````````````````````````````
May God be with them.


42 posted on 03/15/2011 5:55:41 PM PDT by Repeal The 17th (My best comments get deleted; if you can read this, it is not on the 'cutting edge'.)
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To: Eyes Unclouded

Why don’t they have suits on that cover the whole face and head? Or is the image above from before the earthquake?


43 posted on 03/15/2011 6:01:01 PM PDT by WhatNot (God Bless our troops, especially the snipers.)
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To: WhatNot

No suit in this world will protect you against gamma radiation.

1,000 mSv single dose
Causes (temporary) radiation sickness such as nausea and decreased white blood cell count, but not death. Above this, severity of illness increases with dose

5,000 mSv SINGLE dose
Would kill about half those receiving it within a month

And since this workers are there since days and have constantly been exposed to radiation (sometimes up to 3000 Msv) you can figure out how high their chances are to survive this.


44 posted on 03/15/2011 6:10:14 PM PDT by darkside321
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To: struggle
God bless you. The job must be done.

That's the exact sentiment that kept the Japanese soldiers doing their banzai/kamikaze thing going during World War II. This time, however, there's actually an honorable goal.

45 posted on 03/15/2011 6:11:41 PM PDT by ErnBatavia (It's not the Obama Administration....it's the "Obama Regime".)
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To: Eyes Unclouded
This is like the Chernobyl Fire department who answered the call when the reactor blew. Their commanders knew full well what the blue/white flame from the reactor breach meant. No retreat no surrender.
46 posted on 03/15/2011 6:25:22 PM PDT by Polynikes (Haakkaa Paalle)
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To: Eyes Unclouded

Incredibly brave and selfless individuals. Let’s hope they have a better fate than we fear.


47 posted on 03/15/2011 6:30:02 PM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (Yes We Can, have smaller government)
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To: Polynikes

Nuclear samurai indeed.


48 posted on 03/15/2011 6:38:01 PM PDT by Free Vulcan (Vote Republican! You can vote Democrat when you're dead.)
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To: ErnBatavia

>>That’s the exact sentiment that kept the Japanese soldiers doing their banzai/kamikaze thing going during World War II. This time, however, there’s actually an honorable goal.

Considering my former pastor was being trained as a kamikaze pilot before the Japanese war ultimately ended, I’m glad you’re wrong. He didn’t do the job because he knew it was WRONG. These men do it because they know it is RIGHT.

You are familiar with that concept right? The idiots that started that mentality during WWII were the Japanese military elite, content on drumming the Japanese populace into a neo-bushido frenzy to fulfill their perverted goals.

It’s really sad that someone has to mention WWII to justify something about some Japanese plant workers that are willing to die to protect others.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to write a reply, I accept your apology.


49 posted on 03/15/2011 6:41:32 PM PDT by struggle ((The struggle continues))
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

That’s the right movie reference and you are absolutely right about them deserving our highest respect and our admiration as well. Fate chooses the moment and heroes choose to answer fate’s call.


50 posted on 03/15/2011 6:45:29 PM PDT by GBA (Those who die with the most liberty...Win! Ever Vigilance: For the children.)
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To: Repeal The 17th
For whatever reason this made me think of the poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson “The Charge of the Light Birgade”:

I was thinking Tennyson the other day while watching TV and seeing the "Anointed One" and his wife discuss bullying while the world burns:
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

51 posted on 03/15/2011 6:45:40 PM PDT by struwwelpeter
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To: Eyes Unclouded

800 workers aren’t necessarily better than 50.


52 posted on 03/15/2011 6:57:05 PM PDT by yup2394871293
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To: darkside321

I’d bet they are in very thick walled control buildings, not exactly strolling around by the cooling pool fires.


53 posted on 03/15/2011 7:04:04 PM PDT by east1234 (Cut, Kill, Dig and Drill!)
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To: east1234

Well lets hope it for them (but i don´t think that all this work can be done from the inside of a controll center).

just an updade from BCC:
Tepco says the reactor 3 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been emitting white smoke for about 45 minutes, Kyodo News reports. The plant’s reactor 4 was the one where a fire broke out earlier this morning, Tepco said...

This sounds not good isn´t reactor 3 the one which is fueled with plutonium?


54 posted on 03/15/2011 7:11:52 PM PDT by darkside321
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To: darkside321

Ups, of course the report is from BBC


55 posted on 03/15/2011 7:13:08 PM PDT by darkside321
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To: Eyes Unclouded

My deepest respects to those men and women.

Does anyone know how much their protective gear can really protect them from the continuous presence of high levels of radiation?


56 posted on 03/15/2011 7:24:06 PM PDT by JewishRighter ( Multiculturalism is killing us.)
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To: lonevoice

“probably terrified?”

Someone doesn’t know about Japanese work ethic, sense of honor, and deep love of country/race. They are probably focused on doing their job in a tough environment and preventing a bad situation from getting worse.


57 posted on 03/15/2011 7:26:40 PM PDT by Eyes Unclouded ("The word bipartisan means some larger-than-usual deception is being carried out." -George Carlin)
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To: darkside321

Wouldn’t there be safe rooms in a plant where they can shelter for periods of time between tasks and for sleeping and eating? I’m just looking for some thread of hope.


58 posted on 03/15/2011 7:28:27 PM PDT by JewishRighter ( Multiculturalism is killing us.)
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To: struggle

I’m ashamed to say I don’t think I could do it. God bless those guys.


59 posted on 03/15/2011 7:44:18 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: Eyes Unclouded

This just in: TEPCO has announced that the last fifty workers have been evacuated. What this means I’m not sure — is the crisis over or are they giving up on attempting to contain it?


60 posted on 03/15/2011 7:44:58 PM PDT by Jake from AZ (THE TEA PARTY: Trying Desperately To Wake Up The American People)
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