Japan has raised max rad dose allowed for nuclear workers

[Native]

Source: BBC

Japan has raised the maximum radiation dose allowed for nuclear workers, to 250 millisieverts from 100 millisieverts. It described the move as "unavoidable due to the circumstances", AP reports.

Twitter update @ 1324

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698

[HereSince1628]

1. Which really means there isn't a max dose...it's just the next step

up in exposure for those who are brave enough to stand in the face this catastrophe

[xchrom]

2. +1

[Overseas]

3. Sad K&R. //nt

[No Elephants]

4. Given laproscopic surgery, couldn't human-guided robots have been developed for unsafe work?

[quakerboy]

9. This was my thought

If we can send remote control units to do bomb demolition, and we can develop robots to serve tea, and we can develop remote control dealies to move machine guns around a battle field, why have we not built a robot or remote control unit to work in high radiation situations?

[Raschel]

5. So they withdrew the workers and then upped the levels so they could send them back in?

Where is the IAEA? Where is the government? As someone on TV said, they should have taken over the plant days ago.

[stockholmer]

6. that's insane(5 times more than when cancer starts, 50% of way to rad sickness, and 4 days of that

level would put you with a 25% chance of death within 30 days.

:(

[Lucinda]

7. ...

[apnu]

8. The sad truth about nuke power is this.

When there's a catastrophe in nuclear power, the people fixing, rescuing, or otherwise working on the problem become sacrificial lambs. The rads released alone dictate that, you can't be that close to it and not be bathed in cancer causing exposure. This is the price we pay for trying to contain this beast.

This isn't an endorsement for or against nuke power. I am simply stating what I think is the obvious here that I have yet to see anybody else (in the M$M, mention) -- the people working to solve this crisis are going to die because they are trying to save lives. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but certainly at some point because of the rads.

[lovuian]

11. the workers are the heroes here trying to save Japan

I hope these people's families get taken care of

[apnu]

13. Me too. These are some of the most courageous people in the world right now (nt)

[paparush]

10. That sounded very BushCheney-esque when I heard it this morning.

[daleo]

12. They should send some company upper executives to help out in the control room

And maybe a few major shareholders (or should I say stakeholders). Fair's fair.

The CEO could probably handle 250 mS - he could just shield himself with his paycheque.

[RedCloud]

14. Human life is increasingly expendable on our planet.

[marasinghe]

15. sure. if the govt. says so, or the politicians legislate it, then magically -

the human body can re-engineer itself to harmlessly absorb 2 1/2 times the radiation as the previous, scientific standard.

fucking leaders, politicians, the elite - all the same kind of fucking sociopath wherever. as heroic workers on the ground put their lives on the line to save others, all these scumbags can do is push the propaganda to cover their own reputations & also provide legal excuses for the corporations to avoid liability for even some totally inadequate compensation, to heroes - living & dead - & their families, down the road. same fucking stunt that giuliani & the EPA pulled in New York City, on the 9-11 Emergency Responders.

like this is gonna make any difference to the nuke workers - who've already put themselves far beyond the gates of hell, to try & prevent this clusterfuck from turning Japan & other parts of the world, into a nuclear wasteland.

just stop messing around with this meaningless platitudinous shit & do something constructive for the victims already.