Top US nuclear officials burst into laughter over question on deaths of irradiated Fukushima workers

[stockholmer]

Run time: 01:06 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfN0Rbwtji4   Posted on YouTube: October 27, 2011 By YouTube Member: eric1970x Views on YouTube: 54   Posted on DU: October 28, 2011 By DU Member: stockholmer Views on DU: 1622

 
a real laugher
:thumbsdown:

TEPCO says it has lost contact with 143 nuclear plant workers

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/tepco-says-it-has-lost-contact-with-143-nuclear-plant-workers

TOKYO —

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said Thursday that it has not been able to locate 143 individuals working to restore the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant since May. The utility said it has no idea if the 143 have been exposed to radiation and to what level.

According to a report from TEPCO given to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, TEPCO hired many of the workers through subcontractors from all over Japan for limited periods and kept no records of their addresses. On any given day, TEPCO said it has had up to 1,000 workers on rotating schedules at the stricken power plant.

Asahi Geino reported in May that subcontractors were hiring day laborers to work at the plant. The daily remuneration was three times that of regular day jobs if within the grounds of the reactor complex, and 1.5 times higher if within the wider area now restricted due to high radioactivity.

While safety measures are in place to keep workers’ daily exposure to radiation within safe levels, claims for compensation due to sickness from overexposure are unlikely to be paid out, the magazine reported.



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Nuclear plant workers developed cancer despite radiation exposure below legal limit — As little as 5 millisieverts

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110727p2a00m0na010000c.html

Of 10 nuclear power plant workers who have developed cancer and received workers’ compensation in the past, nine had been exposed to less than 100 millisieverts of radiation, it has been learned. <...>

According to Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry statistics, of the 10 nuclear power plant workers, six had leukemia, two multiple myeloma and another two lymphatic malignancy. Only one had been exposed to 129.8 millisieverts but the remaining nine were less than 100 millisieverts, including one who had been exposed to about 5 millisieverts.
Nobuyuki Shimahashi, a worker at the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant:

died of leukemia in 1991 at age 29. His 74-year-old mother Michiko remembers her son dropping from 80 kilograms to 50 kilograms and his gums bleeding. <...>

He had 50.63 millisieverts of radiation exposure over a period of eight years and 10 months.

His radiation exposure monitoring databook, which was returned to his family six months after his death, showed that more than 30 exposure figures and other listings had been corrected in red ink and stamped with personal seals.

Even after he was diagnosed with leukemia, the databook had a stamp indicating permission for him to engage in a job subject to possible radiation exposure and a false report on his participation in nuclear safety education while he was in reality in hospital.

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Over one thousand nuclear workers have internal radiation of 10,000+ cpm after visiting Fukushima

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110521p2a00m0na021000c.html

The government has discovered thousands of cases of workers at nuclear power plants outside Fukushima Prefecture suffering from internal exposure to radiation after they visited the prefecture, the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

Most of the workers who had internal exposure to radiation visited Fukushima after the nuclear crisis broke out following the March 11 quake and tsunami, and apparently inhaled radioactive substances scattered by hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. <...>

In 1,193 cases, workers had internal exposure to radiation of more than 10,000 cpm. Those workers had apparently returned to their homes near the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant or had moved to other nuclear power plants from the Fukushima No. 1 and 2 nuclear power plants. <...>


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More on Dead Fukushima Nuke Worker: Internal radiation level unknown since early Sept. — “Died suddenly” — TEPCO not revealing cause

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203388804576616154250660860.html

A worker hired to help bring the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant under control died suddenly Thursday <...> He was taken to a hospital immediately, and died the next morning.

“We can’t disclose what was cited as the cause on his death certificate because it would amount to violation of privacy,” a Tepco spokesman said. <...>

The worker who died this week had worked there since Aug. 8, helping to install a tank used to treat contaminated water. He spent a total of 46 days at the plant <...>

A Sept. 9 whole-body scan of the man had shown no excessive exposure, the spokesman said. Tepco is still waiting for a test result to see if the worker had experienced more internal exposure since.


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40-year-old Fukushima radiation worker dies of acute leukemia after working at plant for week — Checkup showed no prior health problems

http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2011083000421

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday that a man in his 40s who had worked to help contain the radiation crisis at the firm’s crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has died of acute leukemia. <...>

The man worked at the Fukushima plant for seven days from early August. His jobs included radiation exposure management, the officials said. <...>

A medical checkup prior to his work at the plant showed no problems in his health. <...>


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Fukushima worker’s told his internal radiation level is 30,000 cpm — “That’s never happened before”

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110518006065.htm


<...> only 10 percent of workers there had been tested for internal radiation exposure <...>

A number of personnel working to overcome the nuclear crisis at the facility are increasingly alarmed by their lack of internal exposure testing. <...>

“My measured value exceeded the standard value by a double-digit factor. That’s never happened before,” said a plant worker in his 20s <...>

While a normal internal radiation level would range from several hundred cpm to 1,000 cpm, he was told his level was 30,000 cpm. <...>


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Xinhua: Radiation in areas of Tokyo far exceeded levels in Fukushima on Thursday– Almost 6 µSv/hr at amusement park near capital

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=737035&publicationSubCategoryId=200

TOKYO (Xinhua) — Radiation levels at areas in Tokyo and Chiba prefectures were found Thursday to far exceed current levels in Fukushima prefecture <...>



<...> a children’s amusement park tested positive with 5.82 microsieverts in the Funabashi district of neighboring Chiba prefecture, local authorities said Thursday.


<...> the latest readings taken from inside the evacuation zone in Fukushima prefecture <...> measured 2.17 microsieverts per hour, according to local prefectural officials. <...>

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Japan Times: Cesium levels spiking with unusually high amount of fallout in Okutama, Tokyo up to 300,000 Bq/m² — Home to World’s largest drinking water reservoir of its kind, built to supply Tokyo

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20111008a1.html

An aerial radiation survey of the capital and Kanagawa Prefecture has revealed the northwest tip of Tokyo was tainted by an unusually high amount of fallout <... in> the mountainous Okutama region on Tokyo’s western fringe. Radiation readings in the area were the highest of the two prefectures at 100,000 to 300,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium per square meter.

The hourly radiation readings in the area hovered between 0.2 and 0.5 microsievert, but a few spots had higher levels between 0.5 and 1.0 microsieverts, science official Hirotaka Oku said. <...>
OKUTAMA RESERVOIR



“Formed by the construction of Ogochi Dam in the upstream of Tama River to serve as a reservoir of drinking water for Tokyo metropolitan area.”
“Lake is said to be the world’s largest among the reservoirs used solely for city water supply.“

[Scuba]

1. Yeah, I can't think of anything funnier than dying of radiation poisoning. n/t

sarcasm thingy, just in case.

[TheMadMonk]

5. They, INCLUDING the interviewer are laughing, because it's a stupid...

...question. They ALL know the answer before it's asked, but there is no choice, but it gets asked and answered at every single interview on the subject, because the viewing public has certain expectations.

They are all perfectly aware that the levels of exposure involved are far to small to be statistically linked to sickness. And the timescale still too short for disease to mainfest.

[enough]

2. Was there ever a more perfect embodiment of the attitude of the 1% and their minions

toward the lives of the 99%?

The minions may not be in the 1%, but they know where their bread is buttered.


Epitaph on a Tyrant
by W. H. Auden

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

[valerief]

3. Har, har, har! Fun and games. It's all a big joke to the privileged class. nt

[DCKit]

4. I want to see the birth certificate!!!!1!!!!~!111

Both those guys look as if they slipped out of the pools of Chernobyl before slipping on their human skins.

[Art_from_Ark]

6. Some comments about the Xinhua (Chinese) article

First, the 3.5 microsieverts/hour radiation that was measured in that tiny part of Setagaya Ward/City, Tokyo, was traced to radioactive materials that had been stored illegally under the house that was next to the measuring point.

Second, the Funabashi hot spot was not in an amusement park, but a playground (which I assume lost something in the translation between Japanese and Chinese, since the Kanji characters used for playground in Japanese, 児童遊園, could probably be mistranslated as "amusement park" when read by a Chinese). At any rate, the readings taken there (and at a different playground in Narashino City) in early July were 0.096 microsieverts per hour, which is close to normal.

http://blog.livedoor.jp/vivit2011p2/archives/5501267.html

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=35.695887,140.059585&hl=ja&ll=35.695796,140.059537&spn=0.001529,0.001714&sll=35.695793,140.059056&sspn=0.018124,0.032015&num=1&t=k&z=19

More recently (ealier this week), the City of Funabashi announced the results of measurements taken at 35 public facilities. The four highest readings ranged from 0.39 to 0.45 microsieverts/hour, which, while high, are nowhere near the 5.82 microsieverts claimed in the Chinese article.

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/region/news/111026/chb11102621550006-n1.htm

Also, there is a website for residents of Funabashi to publish their own radiation readings. Recent readings range from 0.16 to 0.29 microsieverts per hour.

as http://hakatte.jp/spot/21099

Finally, anything from Xinhua (China's state-owned news agency) about Japan should be taken with a huge grain of salt, due to political frictions between the two countries, such as the dispute over the Senkaku Islands, and Chinese restrictions on exports of rare earths to Japan.

[Hotler]

7. Fucking assholes! n/t