I get a news brief once a week from a friend in Japan. He takes one human interest news story from the Japanese language newspaper and ties it into a lesson of life. This weeks story does give some insight into a culture for which we as Westerners see as strange. For this posting, I am including the news story only:
JAPAN'S NUCLEAR SAMURAI
Workers at the nuclear plant, like the ancient "Samurai," have committed themselves to die if necessary!
The mother of one of the nuclear "Samurai" working to bring Japan's stricken nuclear plant under control has said her son and his colleagues expect to die as a result of their efforts.
"My son and his colleagues have discussed it at length and they have committed themselves to die if necessary to save the nation," the tearful mother of a 32-year-old worker said. "They have accepted that they will all probably die from radiation sickness in the short-term or cancer in the long-term."
At the end of each working period, workers are decontaminated and taken 10 kilometers away to their sleeping quarters, where they sleep on the floor of a gymnasium in sleeping bags with blankets. They are exposed to multiple stressors and many are complaining of difficulty in sleeping as the risks of depression and death are rising.
The floor on which they sleep may also be contaminated by radiation, and they do not have enough lead sheeting to protect themselves when they rest.
"My son has been sleeping on a desk because he is afraid to lie on the floor. But they say high radioactivity is everywhere, and I think this will not save him," the mother lamented.
The woman did not give her name because she said management asked the workers not to speak publicly about their ordeal, in order to minimize panic.
Some workers exposed to too much radiation are taken to a special hospital to be treated.
Additional workers are being offered big money to dash into the radiation-drenched heart of the plant, perform a job, and then withdraw. They are to act as ‘jumpers’, so called because they jump into highly radioactive areas to quickly perform a task before fleeing with minimal exposure.
Robots are usually used for this type of work, but the interior is so filled with debris that it's difficult for robots to operate there.
Source: Yomiuri News 2011-04-23
JAPAN'S NUCLEAR SAMURAI
Workers at the nuclear plant, like the ancient "Samurai," have committed themselves to die if necessary!
The mother of one of the nuclear "Samurai" working to bring Japan's stricken nuclear plant under control has said her son and his colleagues expect to die as a result of their efforts.
"My son and his colleagues have discussed it at length and they have committed themselves to die if necessary to save the nation," the tearful mother of a 32-year-old worker said. "They have accepted that they will all probably die from radiation sickness in the short-term or cancer in the long-term."
At the end of each working period, workers are decontaminated and taken 10 kilometers away to their sleeping quarters, where they sleep on the floor of a gymnasium in sleeping bags with blankets. They are exposed to multiple stressors and many are complaining of difficulty in sleeping as the risks of depression and death are rising.
The floor on which they sleep may also be contaminated by radiation, and they do not have enough lead sheeting to protect themselves when they rest.
"My son has been sleeping on a desk because he is afraid to lie on the floor. But they say high radioactivity is everywhere, and I think this will not save him," the mother lamented.
The woman did not give her name because she said management asked the workers not to speak publicly about their ordeal, in order to minimize panic.
Some workers exposed to too much radiation are taken to a special hospital to be treated.
Additional workers are being offered big money to dash into the radiation-drenched heart of the plant, perform a job, and then withdraw. They are to act as ‘jumpers’, so called because they jump into highly radioactive areas to quickly perform a task before fleeing with minimal exposure.
Robots are usually used for this type of work, but the interior is so filled with debris that it's difficult for robots to operate there.
Source: Yomiuri News 2011-04-23
LCHIEN
Loring in Katy, TX USA
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