Nuclear Plant Workers Emerge as Heroes

In the midst of terror and destruction, as well as the nuclear crisis in Japan, you can easily lose the heroism of 50 emergency actions to try to prevent the complete collapse of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. It is no exaggeration to say that the safety of thousands of Japanese citizens depend on the efforts of the crew for the cleanup workers are lagging behind the rest of the plant for about 800 people were evacuated in the middle of doses of dangerous radiation. Also cultural, which can reward the self-sacrifice, these workers are very common altruistic - and could make the final sacrifice the welfare of their citizens'.

Who are these 50 workers are still a mystery. His employer, the Tokyo Electric Company, gave no address. But after another explosion at the plant this morning, his fate may be more dangerous at the moment. As nuclear energy consultant Arnold Gundersen told the New York Times, it is likely that the company has been in contact with the soles of the older retirees with an invitation to think about improving the safety equipment in the plant. Plant managers' can also ask people to volunteer to receive additional exposure, "said Gundersen of the Times Henry Fountain.

The workers' aspirations are even more striking, given the legacy of mass exposure to nuclear radiation in the recent Japanese history. Of 1945 of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan thousands of people died in a particularly horrible death from acute radiation exposure - and many of the explosion was a family affected by various forms of cancer later in life.

Of course, workers remaining inside plants Daiichi will not blindly - they are experts in their field and know the health risks they face. They are also equipped with sophisticated equipment designed to protect them from exposure - but they are guaranteed low against high radiation. Radioactive particles can penetrate almost anything a man can bear - and finally, can be easily absorbed through skin or inhaled into the lungs. Gundersen also told the Times that each worker can wear a dosimeter, a device that measures radiation - and that when the device detects excessive levels of radiation present, would generally require them to leave the area.

But now, it is unclear whether a worker on the site is reasonably safe. Several reports today that radiation levels at the plant on Tuesday reached unprecedented levels after the fourth reactor of the plant overheated and reached a boiling point. This latest setback came after a hydrogen explosion caused a fire, sending radioactive material directly into the atmosphere through the smoke. Meanwhile, factory workers continued to try to cool the plant heavily damaged the second reactor by pumping water directly into the lake.

With the worsening crisis, the comparisons with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster - the worst nuclear crisis in the world has ever seen - are increasingly frequent. Unlike the installation of Daiichi, the site of the Chernobyl accident had no retaining wall, so that radiation from the collapse of the plant spread much more widely than likely be the case in the event of a collapse Daichii. But the health risks faced by workers cleaning at two episodes to make a closer comparison and more reflective. When the plant in Ukraine unhappy melted, many of the 176 workers on duty that night were exposed to large doses of radiation, with many of them die in the weeks following the disaster. collapse of the plant and environmental pollution is believed to have damaged the health of nearly half a million men and women in and around Ukraine in the quarter century since the Chernobyl accident.