US News

Families of ‘Fukushima 50’ grow increasingly worried about health of engineers

As the “Fukushima 50” continue to work on Japan’s crippled nuclear reactors to try prevent a catastrophe, families of the engineers who volunteered to stay behind are concerned for the safety of their loved ones.

“My dad went to the Nuclear Plant. I never heard my mother cry so hard. People at the plant are struggling, sacrificing themselves to protect you. Please dad come back alive,” read a tweet by Twitter user @nekkonekonyaa.

“My husband is working knowing he could be radiated,” said one woman, according to ABC News.

He told her via email, “Please continue to live well. I cannot be home for awhile.”

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An email from the daughter of one volunteered was shared on Japanese TV and read, “My father is still working at the plant — they are running out of food…we think conditions are really tough. He says he’s accepted his fate…much like a death sentence.”

The nearly 200 workers are rotated in and out of the danger zone in groups of 50, taking turns eating and sleeping in a decontaminated area about the size of an average living room.

Meanwhile, high radiation levels have been detected 18.6 miles (30 kilometers) from the plant, beyond the 12.4-mile zone designated by authorities, broadcaster NHK reported.

The situation at the Fukushima nuclear plant remains “very serious,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday, adding there had been no major deterioration since Wednesday.

Japan’s science ministry said exposure to the levels detected for a period of six hours would be the equivalent of the maximum safe level a person could absorb in a year.

The US urged its citizens to evacuate from a radius of 50 miles from the plant, while Singapore’s government advised its citizens to evacuate areas which are within 62 miles of the plant.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiyo Amano departed for Japan, where he said he hoped to visit the plant with a team of experts.

Chinook military helicopters dumped tons of water in a desperate bid to cool reactors crippled by the earthquake to prevent a catastrophic meltdown.

Fire engines were put into action to douse fuel rods inside reactors and containment pools to stop them from degrading due to exposure to the air and emitting dangerous radioactive material, AFP reported.

A spokesman for operator Tokyo Electric Power Company said the situation was very severe. Cooling the reactors to prevent the situation becoming critical and making sure the containment vessels remained sound was now the priority, he said.

Three of the six reactors at the plant in northern Japan were relatively stable. “The first unit is relatively stable, for now,” Hidehiko Nishiyama, a senior official at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Administration, said, adding that an emergency generator was providing power for cooling at reactors No. 5 and No. 6.

With AP