Thursday, March 24, 2011

The dangerous work of fire in Fukushima

NHK Japanese television has shown for the first time a video that shows a close working conditions for operators of nuclear power plant in Fukushima, sometimes dark and covered with protective suits and masks. The video shows how fire crews and operators of the plant in Fukushima (northeastern Japan) work a few meters from the base of the reactor building 3 to install automatic guns that inject water to cool the spent fuel pools.

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has also shown pictures of the control room of reactor 3 of the plant in Fukushima, where, after twelve days, has finally returned the light, allowing engineers to collect data on temperature and control some functions of the unit. On Tuesday, two employees of TEPCO, which operates the plant, were injured while external electrical cables installed in one of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi, the company said today.

The workers were taken to a hospital but were not exposed to serious levels of radiation, although the work is performed in an atmosphere of high radioactivity. These two injuries leave the balance of the crisis in 24 wounded and two missing, according to data from TEPCO. The explosion at Unit 3, 14 March, was the most powerful and left eleven wounded.

In addition, four people were injured by the explosion in reactor number 1 the day after the earthquake and tsunami which broke down the cooling system of the plant. Furthermore, a TEPCO employee "who could not keep up", another that received a radiation above 100 millisievert and two workers who "felt unwell while working in units 1 and 2." Also, three employees of subsidiaries were injured by the tsunami that hit the ground on 11, with waves of up to fourteen feet.

Twelve of the injured have been taken to the nearby central Fukushima Daini, where are tested.

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