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Handout / Reuters
Workers wearing protective suits remove unused nuclear components stored in the spent fuel pool of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant No. 4 reactor building on Thursday.
A subcontractor urged workers at Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant to put lead around radiation detection devices in order to stay under a safety threshold for exposure, according to reports.
An executive in his mid-50s told the workers in December to attach the lead plates to the alarm pocket dosimeters that plant owner Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) had given them with to monitor exposure, sources close to the matter said, according to a report by Kyodo News on Saturday.
Dosimeters can be worn as badges or carried as devices around the size of a smart phone to detect radiation.
Protesting as Japan regains nuclear power
Nine workers wore the lead plates around the devices once after the executive's request, public broadcaster NHK said, citing the subcontractor's president.
Japan's disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 2011 contaminated the land around it so badly that the area was effectively a write-off. Today the radiation-infected area is known by a name Ray Bradbury would like: "the exclusion zone." NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel reports from inside the zone, part of his report for Rock Center with Brian Williams airing Wednesday, Mar. 7, at 10pm/9c on NBC.
Japan's health ministry said on Sunday it would investigate the reports, Reuters reported.
Japanese law has set an annual radiation exposure safety threshold of 50 millisieverts for nuclear plant workers during normal operations.
Study: Japan feared 'devil's chain reaction' at nuke plant
But a massive earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima plant in March 2011 led to a breach of containment structures that released radiation, keeping large areas around the plant off limits more than a year later.
A Tokyo Electric Power spokesman told Reuters the company was aware from a separate contractor that Build-Up made the lead shields, but that they were never used at the nuclear plant.
Build-Up could not be reached for comment, Reuters reported.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
In God I trust, who else is there?
I'm with You Laos Deo.... there's only one true Light-Bearer.. GOD. We must take the moral high ground, on a daily basis. With God, Country, Family, we shall prevail in any/all time of such Tyranny. The Social-Engineers are trying to turn Our Society into a Godless one. We must not allow the push of the New World Order Luciferians and Illuminati to gain control. We must stand United together, as did Our Forefathers.. with the accompaniment of GOD.
With Chernobyl being closed down for god knows how long and the nuclear disaster in Japan can the US still afford to take the chance of an accident? Just what part of the US would you like to close down for oh, say 500 years? Instead of building reactors in the middle of no where on federal land we are building them in metropolitan areas like NY. The gov. is no longer accepting the waste fuel rods for storage. Remember there is no pollution with nuclear power but just like anything else there is a waste product only in this case it is dangerous for centuries and has to be contained in water until then. Unlike any other natural disaster the land is no longer usable even for grazing. Fire. flood, hurricane and tornadoes leave the land to rebuild on. Nuclear is the only thing that can screw up not only the land but the food chain and last time I looked we needed food and water. Japan got smart and banned nuclear power then took a stupid pill and allowed it. We nuked them once so they know first hand what the dangers are and then they nuked themselves again. Now they want to do it some time in the future. Talk about bright? Just give everybody a little lead shield to go over the meters and all will be fine.
and where do you think electricity comes from? From the socket?
Sure let's ban nuclear power, BUT folks like you have to voluntarily NEVER use their AC to save remaining power for the rest of us. OK?
The Japanese reactivated their nuke plants because they would otherwise have serious energy shortfalls in the summer. I suppose the more "logical" alternative for Japan was to clear-cut every last acre of undeveloped land to put up solar panels on
Wade , we now use a method called "dry cask" storage. it's very effective, and the casks are stored right on the site....problem solved.
Wade-2880062: Japan did not "ban" nuclear power. Several plants were shut down because of the earthquake on 11 March 2011; those not shut down for that reason were shut down for regular maintenance; eventually, all the nuclear power plants were off-line and regular restarts were delayed, but nuclear power was never banned.
When has the radiation been monitored in the atmosphere, and Oceans from all the explosions, leaks, and dumping? Do you think you are safe now? Where is the promise of cold fusion which was to replace temporary Nuclear Power? Plants that have a ten year shelf life.
PEOPLE are SO stupid most of um need to wear slip on shoes, because they don no how to tie shoe-laces.
Meximerican Govt lie to us? PRE-POSTEROUS !!!
EUROPE, CHINA n' ASIA, they wun'tttttt lie, du yaa theenk!!!?
Japan needs to get away from the dangerous nuclear energy. Coal or natural gas is the safest and cheapest, and we have pleanty of both to export to them.
I am shocked that such a thing could happen. Just shocked!!!
I guess if you can't meet minimum standards you are suppose to modify your equipment to meet those standards no matter the health risk. Much of the marine life there is contaminated with excessive radiation so what's next? Contaminate the workers? For sure if I were to travel to Japan seafood is not on my menu.
What a crock of NBC BS. Simply alarmist without any back up facts. One compnay maybe shielded dosimeters one time and that's supposed to be earth shaking news? I have been to Tokyo since the Tsunami and have not seen anyone glowing in the dark or sprouting two heads. It's amazing how international oil companies spin nuclear incidents in order to protect their progits.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120312f1.html#.UAzVGVLCYog
Article from The Japan Times
Lead shielded dosimeters is a newsworthy addition, and Tokyo is outside the exclusion zone, it should be now common to find people with only one head.
Radiation-induced germline mutations may cause health problems which include miscarriages, stillbirths, congenital defects, neonatal or infant death, chromosomal abnormalities and cancer in later life.
Our concern is preventing future accidents from earthquakes/tsunamis at the storage sites where a much larger problem could occur. We know dishonesty, and we expected it. But do we have to be ignorant enough to allow future 'incidents'?
Oil Co's are quickly digging their own grave, all on their own. Unrelated to radioactive fallout, they are pricing themselves out of existence and leaving alternatives to profit.
The recession made large enough waves, we are expected to rise up and voice our concerns, to defend our values and put a stop to banking, oil, and federal price gouging through unity. We are expected to develop our renewable energy programs in our homes, our vehicles and cut these parasites from our skin.
Now some of you Newsviners may forecast impending doom, forecast world wide misery, sadness and hopelessness for generations, a suffering like the world has never seen. Untrue.
We are in a changing time, an evolutionary occurrence. Embrace it. In this pandemonium of dissonant harmony it's OK to sing off key.
So what was the true motivation for those workers to be in there?
Was it because they were told to or loose their job?
Or maybe they were willing to bend the rules, even risk their lives, to get the problem corrected before it got really, really worse than it already was.
Drive a Mittsbishi and you are driving a Jap Zero.
It is truly sad.....but all governments do it. Look at Obama, the king of cover-up. He and Holder, run guns to Mexico, and use Executive Orders, to cover up the mess. Then, there is his illegal Birth Certificate....anyone can go to Hawaii, and buy a bith certificate. He is not a US Citizen, and someday,we will all find that out, and watch the Democrats run for cover. Big Government sucks....and that is all Obama is about, big government, telling us what to do and how to do it. Sick !!
Duh!
A government's primary directive is to LIE to it's citizens in times of crisis to "keep the calm". The Japanese government is more worried about "saving face" then telling truth.
No surprise here.
LMAO they were made but never used, OH YEAH we believe you. Even if they "weren't used" why were they made and who order them to be made?
Maybe I'm just "ahead of the game" or something, but I kinda picked up on the liar, liar from day ONE when they said there were "no problems".
We should collect all the debris that washes up on our U.S shorelines and ship it BACK to Japan.
Life in prison for the president and his company goes out of business..... That is effectively condemming those workers to death, certainly to a lifetime of heathcare issues and then an early death.
I am stunned and close to being speechless to find out Japan would not tell the truth, right. Gee, my Government wouldn't lie to us like that???? ???? ????
Stop, I squirted coffee out my nose when I read your post,
This radiation has gone all around the world. It just didn't stay in Japan. So we are all screwed.
Now there's a novel idea....lie about the radiation dosage..Hummm, sounds like something our government has done once or twice.
I have read that the doe levels on the @!$%#ishima site are around 4-5 millisieverts an hour. So, unless I got my conversions wrong, and if I did please correct me, that is roughly 5 mrem. Which is the same dose as a cross Pacific flight on any airline. A mammogram is around 40 mrem, a dental x-ray is 1 mrem.
SO, are the levels od radiation incresed from the normal background radiation? Yes.
Is it at any level that is going to cause any sort of acute damage to anything living in the area? No.
I might remind you these are does ON SITE. Anyone that knows just a little bit about radiation knows how quickly it weakens with even just a little bit of space, and by little bit I mean inches/feet. With radiation levels that low on site, you could stand outside the fenced area around the plant and receive basically nothing out of the ordinary in terms of dose.
But please, if my conversion of millisieverts to rem/mrem is incorrect let me know. I know the dose comparisons are correct, but it all relies on the conversion, which I am sure is correct.
1 Gy/1 Sv = 100 rads/rem, so 5 mSv is actually 500 mrem. That is significant, more like 10 CT exams than a couple xrays.
http://par-anoia.net/innodata/
you want the truth look for your self WE ARE LEGION
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Say it isn't so! Keep the truth from the public! Only in America
Workers in the coal-industry are made to do similar things. As are workers in the oil/gas industry. This must be a standard for Big Energy. When we decide to starting fining companies in the billions, this stuff will quit happening...except for Big Oil where it needs to be 100's billions.
How much of this company does Bain own?
That's really unfortunate.
They didn't tell everyone how bad it really was when those rods went flying like rockets all over the bloody place, and then they just up the amount of radioactive levels and said this is the new safe amount trust us.
They are all full of radioapanese sh-it.
There are now parts of Japan that are dead zones, and many will end up dying over the years from there new BS levels.
I can hardly wait until the next big storm blows all this crap into the water, and air.
They have not, and can not contain any of this waste.
Its a done deal.
No different than American Govt. squelching all reports of radiation dropping in California. While at the same time running monthly testing with Black Ops helicopters flying up and down Metro Area's with test collection platforms slung underneath. And no one is reporting one single sentence about it. The liberal media would much rather report about a nutcase mass murderer on a shooting spree and try to go for a total gun grab before the 2nd Great Depression sets in. With a Democrat in the White House the Liberal media won't say anything against the War Machine and Govt. Spooks moving toward feudal socialism. America, A failed concept.
Government ruins everything it touches. Government is the most corrupt of all influences. It is Governments that bring us Holocausts. It is Governments who lie the people into an endless string of wars.