Numbers of Fukushima-Daiichi “Victims”
April 4th, 2011
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There have been a number of downright shameful reports on the health consequences of the events at Fukushima-Daiichi, including this one, the worst I have seen yet from the Huffington Post:
Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant are rightfully being hailed as heroes. A glimpse into their lives shows the high price they are paying to stave off a nuclear catastrophe — 12 hour shifts, very little food, deplorable sleeping conditions and an expectation that some of or all of them will soon die. It’s heartbreaking and telling that industry insiders refer to them as glow boys despite their immense sacrifice.
Nuclear workers accept their fate ‘like a death sentence’
Fears for their health as one expert says it is ‘perhaps a suicide mission’…
The radiation levels at the plant entrance are at a level which will either kill the workers soon or cause them appalling illnesses in the years to come.
Experts have said that the airtight suits they are wearing would do little to stop the contamination.The group remained behind after 700 of their colleagues fled when radiation levels became too dangerous.
Their identities have not been revealed, but experts said they are likely to be working class front-line technicians and firemen who know the plant the best.
It is thought that mostly older men have volunteered because they have already had children – younger workers might be rendered infertile by the high radiation doses.
Whilst the men are called the Fukushima Fifty, the group is thought to actually be 200-strong. They are doing four shifts in rotation, working on restarting the cooling systems.
Their heart-rending messages home were made public yesterday by Japanese national television, which has interviewed their relatives.
One relative said: ‘My father is still working at the plant. He says he’s accepted his fate, much like a death sentence.’
And as the group of 180 prepare to pay the ultimate price for their heroic “suicide mission”, the brave workers have been rushing out heartfelt messages to their distraught families.
One, his body being bombarded with soaring doses of radiation but refusing to give up the fight, wrote to his wife: “Please continue to live well, I cannot be home for a while.”
The 180 plant workers – dubbed the Fukushima 50 because they work in teams of 50 – know their lives could end in terrible agony from exposure to radiation levels.
Radiology expert Keiichi Nakagawa, at University of Tokyo Hospital, said: “I don’t know any other way to say it, but this is like suicide fighters in a war.”
And Dr Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist, said: “It’s got worse. We’re talking about workers coming into the reactor perhaps as a suicide mission and we may have to abandon ship.”
These are only a few of the reports in major media outlets of this nature. Even the normally respectable National Geographic has been throwing around terms like “suicide mission.”
What an absolute pile of steaming crap that is. Granted, the workers at Fukushima Daiichi are indeed working hard in bad conditions. The area has been all but destroyed by the quake and tsunami, leaving them with no comfortable place to sleep, limited sanitary facilities, limited food, no electricity or lighting in support buildings and tough work conditions. For that, they should be commended for their dedication.
“But some or all will soon die?” “Glow boys?” “Suicide Mission?” PUH-LEASE!
As if the families of those who are working in these conditions need any more stress. It’s downright shameful to start spouting lies about workers being all but ready to keel over from radiation exposure. A few may have received doses higher than normally encountered in this line of work, but nobody is going to die from that.
Many of these reports are now weeks old and no, still none of the workers on the “suicide mission” are dead. Not a single one of them.
In case anyone was actually counting, here are the real numbers:
Workers:
- Deaths as a result of Earthquake/Tsunami: 2 (died of injuries caused by tsunami)
- Injuries as a result of Earthquake/Tsunami or related accidents: Several Minor Injuries
- Deaths as a result of non-nuclear equipment failure/accidents: 0
- Injuries as a result of non-nuclear equipment failure/accidents: 8
- Deaths as a result of hydrogen explosions: 0
- Injuries as a result of hydrogen explosions: 15 – Mostly Minor, None Life Threatening
- Deaths due to acute radiation exposure (radiation poisoning): 0
- Illness requiring hospitalization due to radiation exposure (radiation poisoning): 0
- Mild acute radiation poisoning, not requiring hospitalization: 0
- Minor radiation burns or irritation to skin: 2 – No dangerous exposure to internal organs. Taken for medical treatment, but burn treatment deemed unnecessary.
- Severe radioactive disposition, requiring off-site decontamination: 0
- Minor radioactive disposition, on-site decontamination only: 17 – Minor radioactivity detected on face or body, cleaned of on site
Members of the public:
- Deaths due to Fukushima-Daiichi: 0
- Injuries due to Fukushima-Daiichi: 0
Long term health consequences:
Too early to tell. Probably minor. Possible slight increase in cancer risk for some workers. Negligible to public.
Meanwhile, the number of confirmed dead from the quake and tsunami is now approaching 30,000. It may go higher and in all likelihood, we’ll never know the total number. Some individuals were likely swept out to sea and many may not be reported missing, because the disaster wiped out their entire family. Hundreds of thousands have either completely lost their homes or had them severely damaged. Many small and medium businesses were wiped out and even large companies have taken a huge hit, potentially leaving more than a million with no job to return to.
It is actually quite remarkable that there have been so few injuries and workplace accidents, given the conditions that workers are laboring in and the extended shifts they are on the job. It is a testimant to the discipline and training of the plant workers that they have been able to maintain order and safety in the chaotic aftermath of the massive earthquake.
This entry was posted on Monday, April 4th, 2011 at 9:31 pm and is filed under Bad Science, Culture, Good Science, Misc, Not Even Wrong, Nuclear, Obfuscation, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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April 4th, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Agreed with everything you wrote in this article. I think the repeated labeling of the Fukushima workers as “suicide workers”, as well as the attitude of the media in general, has been irresponsible and shameful.
No doubt the fear caused by this event will lead to depression and alcohol abuse, as many communities suffered after Chernobyl. However the media and various other scaremongers are equally, if not more so to blame than TEPCO.
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April 4th, 2011 at 10:05 pm
What bothers me the most is that the efforts and risks taken of other emergency workers both in post earthquake Japan and everywhere else are being devalued by this hand wringing over the Fukushima workers. While I think that those responding to the problems at the nuclear plants should be recognized for their efforts, they are a small fraction of the heroes that have come to the fore in answer to their country’s need.
What is worse, the Fukushima workers are, one would suppose, supporters of nuclear energy – what a monumental slap in the face it must be to them to find their travails being held up as antinuclear propaganda.
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April 4th, 2011 at 11:36 pm
I’m sure the working conditions are rather poor, but I would think the workers know better than to think they’re getting lethal doses of radiation.
These stories really make me sick though. the one about older workers who won’t have children takes the cake, or maybe the one about workers knowing they will soon all die. I just don’t know. These journalists are so yellow it’s like trying to pick which banana has the yellowest peal.
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April 5th, 2011 at 2:04 am
I think the key is to make sure that those who make such stupid statements now get called out when those statements become obviously wrong (i.e. when the deaths they say would happen haven’t happened).
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April 5th, 2011 at 3:00 am
Damn dirty journalists! They are the lowest form of life on the planet.
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April 5th, 2011 at 3:01 am
As you can see it is this kind of behaviour that really gets under my skin.
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April 5th, 2011 at 3:15 am
Josh said:
Oh I can think of lower forms of life.
Politicians for example, also activists who don’t bother to understand what they are active about, people who present themselves as experts despite not knowing what they talking about.
Though journalists who don’t bother to check their facts are pretty low on the list.
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April 5th, 2011 at 8:11 am
Mark Twain said something like “one more century of journalism and all words will stink”
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April 5th, 2011 at 11:02 am
Jean Demesure said:
Hmm. Been about a hundred years since that statement, hasn’t it? Apparently he had some very good foresight.
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April 5th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Actually there were 3 deaths caused by the tsunami, not 2: there was also this guy who was crushed in his crane booth.
Not that it changes everything, but we might as well get our figures straight.
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April 5th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Could anyone help me out here please, my friends are panicking due to Fairewinds webcast, in particular this one about Te-129 measurement and recriticality at Fukushima. Please tell me why it is nonsense, I am not a nuclear engineer.. Thanks..
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/tellurium-129-presence-proof-inadvertent-recriticality-fukushima
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April 5th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
For me, one real bitch about this kind of journalism is that after this situation is fully resolved and no one has died from the “suicide” mission there isn’t going to be any “hey we were wrong” reporting. This kind of thing stays with people, that is why decades after TMI people still think workers and members of the public were killed.
Also, who in the “industry” is calling these workers “glow boys”? Is this an actual fact or just another trick to paint nuclear professionals as callous and indifferent towards human life?
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April 5th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Benjamin said:
I had actually thought that too, but it turns out there was some confusion about the death of the crane operator. That actually happened at the Fukushima Daini power plant (Japanese for Fukushima Number 2), which is a seperate facility a short distance from the Fukushima-Daiichi plant. There has been some confusion over the reporting because the term used is sometimes just “Fukushima,” but there are in fact, two different Fukushima nuclear power plants a few miles apart.
Fukushima Daini has not gotten as much press because it has not suffered any substansial reactor-related failures or problems. It was also hit by the tsunami, and all four of its reactors were at full power at the time and had to be shut down. Like Fukushima-Daiichi, many of the backup power systems were damaged or destroyed.
Fukushima Daini also suffered some very serious damage to other aspects of the plant. There was a fire that broke out in one of the turbine rooms. The main cooling pump room was completely flooded. There were failures of many of the auxillary pumps. The total damage was a bit less than Fukushima-I as Fukushima-2 is a bit further inland, but it was still substansial.
The biggest difference is that Fukushima Daini was built later than Fukushima-Daiichi. It uses four reactors that were built by Toshiba and Hitachi. They are modified versions of the GE BWR-5, built under license. They are mid 1980’s technology, as opposed to Fukushima-Daiichi, which is basically early 1970’s.
The later generation reactors have proven able to handle the situation remarkably well, despite it being outside their original design parameters for earthquake survival. They make use of more passive-based cooling systems, they have a greater ability to withstand short periods without external cooling and they are built with more intenal and protected compontnets.
Hence, you hear little about Fukushima-Daiichi, given that its older brother is the one in trouble.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_II_Nuclear_Power_Plant
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April 5th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Are there any good photographs out of the power plant area. Not just the reactors, but the area where the workers are staying and the work areas and admin buildings. I’d just be interested to see how bad the state of the whole complex is. Based on what I have seen of the tsunami devastation, it has got to be very bad.
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April 5th, 2011 at 4:54 pm
A-mouse:
The part about the inevitability of this:
“For the time being these recritical events are isolated, although courtesy of the whole premise behind a nuclear power plant, all it takes is for some form of critical threshold to be reached, and for a full blown self-sustaining chain reaction to result in Chernobyl part 2.”
Is nonsense, as well as practically all other claims, such as neutrons being undetectable (TEPCO has been monitoring for neutrons at a location onsite – look at where they publish data on their website: http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/monitoring/index-e.html). Neutrons aren’t being detected, but it’s more likely because they aren’t being produced in appreciable amounts.
The part about Te-129 is misinformed on two counts:
1) TEPCO has been having trouble properly identifying the radionuclides it is finding. They are not sure that they are even reading Te-129. Their words are: “the result of nuclide analysis of tellurium-129…are doubtful.” (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11040408-e.html)
2) They assume the only means of production of Te-129 is through fission. In fact, Te-129 is also produced by a decay of the metastable Te-129, Te-129m. Te-129m has a half life of 33.6 days and is also a fission product. (http://atom.kaeri.re.kr/cgi-bin/nuclide?nuc=Te-129&n=1)
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April 5th, 2011 at 5:28 pm
A-mouse said:
Take a look here for an explanation. Yeah, it’s almost certainly nonsense.
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April 6th, 2011 at 12:04 am
Thank you BMS
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April 6th, 2011 at 11:04 am
I find Fairewinds to be especially unsettling because of how it is presented. They have a guy with a suit in a calm deminer and speaking of his qualifications and then pushing this alarmist bull****. It makes it look very professional and credible. To someone who does not know better, they don’t look at all like they’re extermist or non-credible.
That is what scares me. It’s hard for anyone who does not know enough to see through the claims to tell.
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April 6th, 2011 at 11:58 am
It seems the National Enquirer has limited their focus to celebrities, so someone had to step in and fill the yellow journalism role on other types of stories. Thanks for all the posts, drbuzz0, and keep up the good work.
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April 7th, 2011 at 1:45 pm
drbuzz0 said:
I stand corrected
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April 12th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
Josh said:
Nope, that position is reserved for nuclear industry activists and apologists.
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April 12th, 2011 at 4:45 pm
Bruce said:
I would reserve it for misanthropes who want us all to shiver in the dark.
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April 12th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
Chuck P. said:
Or for us to die for their beliefs, don’t forget about them.
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April 12th, 2011 at 6:08 pm
Bruce said:
I’m not an apologist. I have nothing to apologize for. The form of energy I advocate hasn’t killed anyone in this incident and has killed fewer than any other form of energy.
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