Elderly volunteers seek to stabilize nuclear plant.
Elderly volunteers seek to stabilize nuclear plant.
BY DAISUKE NAKAI STAFF WRITER
2011/05/25
.More than 160 elderly people have volunteered to brave high radioactivity and help stabilize the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in response to a call from a former engineer in an effort a government official calls a "suicide corps."
Yasuteru Yamada, 72, who previously worked for Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd., said people aged 60 or older must undertake the mission because their age means the adverse impact from radioactivity will be minimal.
"Progress will be limited as long as workers have to change every few minutes, and a coordinated response cannot be expected even if robots are deployed," Yamada said.
"We have to come to the forefront because we accumulated technology and capability on the job and because we will be subject to small effects of radioactivity due to our age."
It is not clear whether Yamada and his comrades will be allowed to work toward their cause.
Goshi Hosono, special adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan on the nuclear crisis, said there is not an immediate need for elderly volunteers, even though Yamada's call is appreciated.
"We are gradually putting in place a work process in which high levels of radioactivity are not accumulated in a single worker," Hosono said. "The basic rule is to establish a work process that does not require such a 'suicide corps.' "
At the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, 1,148 people were working as of May 22 with a goal of bringing crippled reactors to cold shutdown within eight months.
But it is becoming increasingly difficult to secure workers as the nuclear crisis has dragged on, according to the companies that dispatch workers to the Fukushima plant.
Some workers sent to the plant immediately after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami have refused to return, citing poor working conditions.
Yamada, who has experience in waste disposal and plant construction, began soliciting volunteers in early April by sending e-mails and letters to his acquaintances.
Prospective workers must be 60 or older and have the will and physical strength to work in the nuclear power plant.
As the call for action spread, 165 people said they are willing to take part in his Skilled Veterans Corps as of May 23.
Yamada disputes the assertion that he is organizing a suicide corps, saying efforts will be made to keep workers' exposure to radioactivity to a minimum.
Yamada has contacted Diet members and Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant's operator. He plans to press the government and TEPCO into action after enlisting more elderly people.
The plant needs systems for cooling reactors and spent fuel storage pools on a permanent basis. The task will involve work in places contaminated with high levels of radioactivity.
Yamada has been receiving cancer treatments since a malignant tumor was found four years ago. He is in good physical health, but the risk for recurrence remains.
"I want to do my part so that a negative legacy will not be left for future generations," Yamada said.
Hosono, a Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker, said he takes note of Yamada's offer, which he described as a "devoted action."
Hosono also said he has asked TEPCO if there is an opportunity for elderly people to demonstrate their abilities.
But he said it will be difficult unless they have experience in working in nuclear power plants.
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No seasoned IAEA and NRC professionals to do the job?
No seasoned IAEA and NRC professionals to do the job?
But the Industry Owned Science knows so much!
(Isn't that what we always hear?)
Where is the great IAEA 'science' to remedy the crisis?
Where is the IAEA? Where is the NRC?
Most of all- where are the citizens and scientists asking these questions?
Surely the 'Industry Led Peer Review Process' has experienced enough catastrophe to come up with solutions which don't include sacrificing our Seniors, yes? Between Chernobyl, 3 Mile Island, Hansford, Belarus, well...how long could I go on? http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/nukes/chernob/rep02.html
Where is the Industry Led Effort? All of these cumulative events and no solutions?
Oh, I almost forgot, the 'Industry Led Scientific Effort' is Completely bypassing proper scientific calculations for 'Effective Dose' in order to concoct what?
Oh yeah...'Airplane Analogies'.
Industry Led Scientific Effort is 'Drafting up the Grand Unification Theory' of 'Nobody is Seeing Nuthin'.
Perhaps we should get started on our own 'Nuclear Suicide Corps' (NSC) list here in the USA? So that when we have an event in the USA similar to Fukushima, we already have our seniors in line to 'jump into the volcano'?
Why don't we start our list of 'Nuclear Suicide Corps' (NSC) with everyone who needs to collect their Social Security and Medicare? That would fit in line with the Bush/Cheney Energy Policy left over from the 'Energy Task Force' which is running this outfit, yes?
The sacrifice of innocents to protect those who engineered this criminal travesty is 'humane'? This act expresses 'humanity'?
Are some so confused as to define that as Humanity? That's a terribly misled definition.
Another possibility is that this 'cheerful outlook' upon learning that 'seniors will be sacrificed' is just more of the same 'propaganda' which has ridiculed any who dare speak non-violently about the current reality of the situation.
We don't want to be caught 'unaware' like Japan has been- it took them 5 entire months to start compiling their list of Grandmothers and Grandfathers! Shouldn't we get started today?
Who wants to donate their 'Grandmother' or 'Grandfather' so that the Nuclear Industry may continue to flourish 'profitability-wise'?
(Who am I kidding? Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and George Bush probably typed up that list sometime between 2001-2003 during their 'Energy Policy Task Force' contractual negotiations. I wonder what those contracts consisted of? I wonder if those contracts possibly included a 'Nuclear Industry Protectionary Component' which went into effect upon a Nuclear Release Event? I wonder if such a contractual component look somewhat similar to this 'PR Campaign' hosted by the UC Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Dept which has consistently downplayed the threat of this event?
I wonder if John Yoo 'possibly' helped out with that?)
http://www.lovearth.net/bushcheneyenergyplan.htm
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Oh, I almost forgot- CONGRATULATIONS to UC Berkeley Professor Kai Vetter and the $25 Million Dollar Department of Energy Grant!!! (...in addition it appears to many other grants!)
http://coe.berkeley.edu/news-center/press-releases
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http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/node/1846
"Teaching will be accompanied by an active research component to give the students full exposure to the advanced theoretical and experimental techniques."
Woot! Woot! We can all anxiously await the best 'Rubber Ducky' analogies and 'Monkeys Banging Cymbals' analogies which 'money can buy'!
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I'm certain that the BRAWM Team and the UC Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Dept. is 'above reproach' in terms of conflict of interest. However, if there is 'more to the story' then I will just 'read all about it' in the news like everyone else.
I agree with you 100
I agree with you 100 percent! Where are the experts? That is who should be doing the clean up, trained people not ordinary citizens. They did not create this mess. This mess was created by a bunch of greedy people who where too cheap to upgrade and service the plants properly and are not willing to take responsibility for their plant regardless of what caused it. There are plenty of experts who should have courage to deal with this but NO, what we have is a bunch of gutless individuals. This is a perfect example of how the rich will continue to absolve themselves from any responsibility regardless of disaster. Think oil spill, it is still not cleaned up and who will have to do it if they want it cleaned up ...yes ordinary people. The same people that volunteered in the beginning without being given proper gear to protect them from inhaling the toxins or even told it was toxic! Yes, if you want your life bavk then you have to go clean it up because it just costs too much money to do it properly and no one in their right mind wants to do it that has any knowledge of the health effects and poisons that you will be dealing with! Criminal!
jAPANESE VOLUNTEERS
So Brave, I would volunteer in an instant, being one of his generation. My doctorate is in Botany, perhaps my contribution would be replanting.
Excellently poignant,
Well done to all.
Beautiful. This is called
Beautiful.
This is called Humanity.
Well done to all.