NEWS OPEN THREAD III – Japan’s Tsunami “Fallout”: Conditions for Japan’s “Fukushima Fifty”

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Since it’s simpler to keep an open thread for the fast moving story of Japan’s crisis, I’m starting the third open news thread on the subject for everyone to add their thoughts and updates to. Since the event has happened, major networks have sent multiple teams for “on the scene” hyperbolic coverage and fear mongering, while also draining Japan’s precious few resources of food, water and fuel. Meanwhile the Congressional Dems, painfully conscious of their traditional anti-drilling and anti-nuclear plant platform, have begun making hiccups about addressing oil prices. In this moment, you won’t find a Democrat in the halls of Congress who’s willing put advocate for nuclear power.

Meanwhile, demonstrating the power of propaganda, sales of geiger counters to fear laden west coast Americans has spiked. Driving this point home was a geiger counter manufacturer who was almost late to his interview on Cavuto’s World today because he was furiously working, getting out a backlog of orders. According to him? Most purchasers are individuals, living on the west coast.

One nation’s desperate crises is another man’s economic boost. Amazing, when you think of it.

But in this third edition, I want to showcase those we’ve not heard much from directly… the TEPCO employees on the front line, battling multiple hardships trying to keep the reactors under control. As foreign national and corporations flee the nation, the Japanese have mounted a quiet and respectful rally around those they call the Fukishima Fifty. UK’s Daily Mail has more info on their on site conditions, stellar photos from the site, and brave tweets and messages from the TEPCO workers to their families.

Japan was today rallying behind the anonymous nuclear emergency workers at the stricken Fukushima power plant – as heartbreaking details of their plight emerged.
The 180 workers face soaring radiation levels as they make ever more desperate attempts to stop overheating reactors and spent fuel rods leaking more radiation into the atmosphere.

~~~

National television has interviewed relatives of the workers, who the plant operators insist on keeping anonymous, with one woman saying her father had accepted his fate ‘like a death sentence’.

A woman said her husband continued to work while fully aware he was being bombarded with radiation. He sent her an email saying: ‘Please continue to live well, I cannot be home for a while.’ The workers are known as the Fukushima Fifty because they rotate into contaminated areas in teams of that number.

Another email shown by newsreaders said: ‘My father is still working at the plant … they are running out of food…we think conditions are really tough. He says he has accepted his fate much like a death sentence.’

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.’

According to the Daily Mail, the workers are exposed to radiation levels of 40 milisieverts per hour, and removed from duty after being exposed to 250 milisieverts.

One of the surprising things is that the workers are painfully aware of the demonization of TEPCO by media and blogs … something that those on the front line find offensive and hurtful. So I leave you with the comments of the lone woman worker of the Fukushima Fifty…

One lone woman worker, Michiko Otsuki, this week spoke up for her ‘silent’ colleagues on a Japanese social networking site to insist that they were ‘not running away’ as the crisis intensified.

She wrote in a blog translated by The Straits Times: ‘People have been flaming [plant operators] Tepco, But the staff of Tepco have refused to flee, and continue to work even at the peril of their own lives. Please stop attacking us.’

‘As a worker at Tepco and a member of the Fukushima No. 2 reactor team, I was dealing with the crisis at the scene until yesterday (Monday).’

‘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 said.

‘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.’

These workers, to me, are the equivalent of our US military… those that place themselves in the line of fire for family and country. Unlike our soldiers, who know that war is part of their job, I doubt these workers envisioned this as part of their job description. Their rise to to the challenge is beyond commendable.

There is a powerline laid to the power plant, which at latest news has been successfully completed. This should aid in stabilization of water pumps and stop the fluctuating water levels that affect the radiation levels. For these brave souls and their families, my prayers it works, and that their exposure will not affect a long and happy life post this event.

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Did all of the TEPCO workers get evacuated overnight?
I am hearing conflicting reports.

mata:

but the way the media played up the FF feels a bit like propaganda

It DOES feel like propaganda. Yes, I am very sympathetic to the individuals, but the “narrative” being put out there is quite sympathetic… but, when there are conflicting stories to how long individuals are actually being exposed, and the limits to their exposure and the actual number of people etc, it seems something does not add up. So far they have not identified the “Casey Jones'” of this event. Thus I showed skepticism of the story… if I am an ass for not believing a story that has conflicting details, then fine. But I have NEVER called you an ass even when I have though your have played your hand heavy handedly.

I respond in kind, blast. You know that. You stretched for desperate measures to defend an irresponsible media… i.e. grasping that a “cloud” of radiation with neglible effects did indeed reach the US. Well duh… even a middle school student learning about weather patterns would figure that out.

We have kicked this one around way too much Mata, really. I did not defend the position of the the media on this. You had to go to another thread and misconstrue a conversation I had with another poster and then mock me in a juvenile manner. If you had a disagreement with that comment at the time, all you needed to do is either ask for a clarification or make your point.

ilovebeeswarzone: (to blast)would you know if the wind and AIR CURRENTS would or could bring those radiations and toxics elements to this part of the hemisphere or another neighbourly part of AMERICA? thank you

blast: : not sure, but the news has shown them describing the potential for it to get into the jet stream. That sounded like speculation, but if it did, I would guess it could get to the US.

No where in what I said to ilovebeeswarzone constitutes the “desperate measures” you are speaking of. What part of NOT SURE in my comment did you not understand. What part of POTENTIAL in my comment did you not understand. What part of SPECULATION in my comment did you not understand. Desperate measures? Over reacting? I never raised a comment about needing a Geiger counter or iodine pills, I never said it would be a threat to health in the US…. that is you adding histrionics and disinformation, trying to shape a fight and use things I NEVER BROUGHT INTO THE ARGUMENT.

Mata: “That it escalated to my utter disrespect for you on this issue – defending the indefensible media,”

Mata: since the event has happened, major networks have sent multiple teams for “on the scene” hyperbolic coverage and fear mongering, while also draining Japan’s precious few resources of food, water and fuel.

Funny you have been linking to these carnivorous consumers of Japanese foods and resources. I have attempted to use local Japanese sources for here, or an analyst who wrote a bit in Time (from the US). I am not here to defend or deride them media. .

I realize your goat has been gotten on this, but if you follow my statements:

Mata: workers are painfully aware of the demonization of TEPCO

I read that as ‘don’t criticize the company’… which is ridiculous, the people in Japan and those around the world do deserve the facts. The company needs to be on the record with what it knows as this incident affects more than just Japan. The people in Japan have been very angry with TEPCO and they actually knew about the long history of the company not being forthcoming (or even being deceptive).

Blast: The reports seem to indicate Japanese people do not believe what they are being told, and this company had a long history of lying. It is up to the company to prove to be credible by providing relevant information.

Mata: You mean the same bozos I mention above? Everything’s a conspiracy with you, eh blast? Like you can really cover up something the scope they forecast

I don’t know if they are presently misleading the public. Maybe it is the confusion of the event, damaged instrumentation or whatever. I would say that the information coming out has from time to time contradicted itself. With that being said, the history of the company obfuscating, delaying and falsifying information is well documented. Therefore I look at what they say with a very healthy dose of skepticism.

If you care to read about some of TEPCO’s history, here are some links to an English language Japanese paper.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070719a2.html
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070321a2.html
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070323a3.html
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070331a4.html
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090414a3.html
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20020901a1.html

Here are some more, from more conventional sources (here in USA)
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/BUSINESS/asia/09/02/japan.tepco/index.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&refer=energy&sid=a1d4vmhfe1D4

Here are a bunch of Industry friendly reports which detail much of the same.
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=13270
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=13124
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=13734
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=13152
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=12998

As much as I commend the efforts of the Japanese Defense Forces and the engineers, police and emergency workers at this plant – I think the whole notion of the “Fukushima Fifty” has been contradicted on and off. I am not taking anything away from the individuals who are placing themselves in harms way, but the way the media played up the FF feels a bit like propaganda when you simultaneously read when workers reach 250 millisieverts are required to leave the area. I would like to know the real facts on this, of course again, time will tell.

Again. I started out commending those responding to the emergency, I said I was skeptical about the “Fukushima Fifty” (based upon the inconsistencies and the narrative). I said i was waiting for the real facts. Maybe we may learn about specific heroic Casey Jones’, but at this time we know there are people there, working in terrible conditions, but if they are being limited by law (which we are hearing) to 250 millisieverts. We hear they are all evacuated, we here there are 200+, we hear a lot of things.

Given the gravity of the situation there may need to be some sacrifice of lives. It would be a sad fact, just like in Chernobyl. Time will tell, like I said before.

The Los Angeles Times:
World Health Organization officials told reporters Monday that Japan should act quickly to ban food sales from areas around the damaged nuclear plant, saying radiation in food is more dangerous than radioactive particles in the air because of accumulation in the human body.

The FDA.
Altogether, FDA electronically screens all import entries and performs multiple analyses on about 31,000 import product samples annually.
Foods imported from Japan make up less than 4 percent of foods imported from all sources.
Almost 60 percent of all products imported from Japan are foods.
The most common food products imported include seafood, snack foods and processed fruits and vegetables.

The UK’s Financial Times:
Continuing tests reported high levels of radioactive iodine-131 and caesium isotopes in some samples of spinach grown on the fertile plains between Tokyo and the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Some tests find almost no radioactivity, some find levels that are double the legal limit, and the most extreme sample from Ibaraki prefecture had radioactivity 27 times the legal limit.
~~~~

Same article (UK’s FT) says that even that high an amount is still not life threatening.
I guess you would have to eat it and keep eating it over a long time before enough might accumulate in you to become a problem.

@ mata –

Good heavens, blast… you do like to pile on to your original and offensive “propaganda” comment INRE the TEPCO workers.

>> I don’t believe there is a “Fukushima Fifty”

A lone crew of 50, hand on the break (Casey Jones), giving their lives in some heroic battle to save the plant. – It is either a creation of the news or the company spin masters. Everything on that score has been contradicted; number of people, total radiation allowed (250 millisieverts and out) , and the frequency they evacuated.

THAT DOES NOT MEAN THERE ARE NOT MANY DEDICATED PEOPLE DOING THEIR BEST TO RESOLVE THIS SITUATION, AND MANY TAKING HUGE RISKS – AND POTENTIALLY RISKING THEIR HEALTH AND LIVES.

(which I have repeated over and over again)!

Questioning the validity of the FF story does not minimize the people there. I question the form of story is all. Just like you question the hyperbolic stories on other elements in this event, I question the same hype about the narrative of the FF.

Considering the magnitude of damage, the loss of monitoring equipment, it makes it a bit difficult for TEPCO to give detailed information of the events, don’t you think?

>>I just said that in my previous comment. Guess you missed that.

Blast: (my first comment in the thread) We have multiple reactors in various degrees of melt down, potentially cracked reactor containment and add the spent fuel ponds where the temperatures are increasing and the fuel rods are not in any secondary containment. Sounds to me like a very grave situation.

>> That is what I had synthesized about the coverage I was watching and had used in my first comment here. I did not comment one way or another about the coverage as I did not see ALL of the coverage. I saw some, some was good and thoughtful and some was totally ignorable, and some ridiculous (Ann Coulter on the Factor saying radiation is good for you, Bill O’Reilly asked why people were not then moving toward the power plant) .

You have conflated so much into this thread argument, things I never said, things you inferred to my comments. I never claimed a dangerous cloud was coming here, that is just a lie, I never brought up Geiger counter – another conflated lie, I never raised the need for iodine here – another conflated lie.

Mata; You’ve spun your blame game on the wrong folks into the ground here, and I’m really no longer interested in your opines.

Blame game? LOL. YOU HAVE BEEN ON THE VENDETTA mata. You have spun all kinds of half truths and totally misrepresented my position. You are very clever mata, you wrap yourself is self indignation over my” affront” to the hypothetical FF (a hyperbolic media story perhaps?). Now, since we will probably disagree about the FF, why not go after the facts I posted in my comment…

Were there not multiple reactors with varying degrees meltdown?
A potential cracked reactor containment?
Spent fuel rods in ponds where temperature was raising?
Was the situation not grave?

These were all things I learned through media reports.

Here’s an UPDATE with qualifiers.
NOTE the qualifiers.

Danielle Demetriou and Julian Ryall in Tokyo

The core at reactor two of the Fukushima plant may have melted on to a concrete floor, according to experts, running the risk of radioactive gases being released into the surrounding area.

Richard Lahey, who was a head of reactor safety research at General Electric when the company installed the units at Fukushima, said the workers, who have been pumping water into the three reactors in an attempt to keep the fuel rods from melting, appeared to have “lost the race” to save the reactor.

“The indications we have … suggest that the core has melted through the bottom of the pressure vessel in unit two, and at least some of it is down on the floor of the drywell,” he told a newspaper.

“I hope I am wrong, but that is certainly what the evidence is pointing towards.” ….
…..
…..
(Tepco), the operators of the Fukushima plant, confirmed that plutonium had been detected, for the first time, in two out of five soil samples. Tepco said the levels of plutonium were not harmful to human health, but experts said the discovery suggested the reactor’s containment mechanism had been breached.

“Plutonium is a substance that’s emitted when the temperature is high, and it’s also heavy and so does not leak out easily,” said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

“So if plutonium has emerged from the reactor, that tells us something about the damage to the fuel. And if it has breached the original containment system, it underlines the gravity and seriousness of this accident.”

whole article here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8414554/Japan-nuclear-crisis-workers-losing-race-to-save-reactor.html

Not alarmist at all!
Just supposing and ”maying” and ”mighting” and assuming.
No where does the article say, RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!!

LOL.
But it is interesting.