Japan Earthquake 2011: First Look Inside Damaged Nuclear Plant (PHOTOS)

Tokyo Electric Power Company has distributed a series of dramatic images showing Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station workers risking their health to repair the control room of reactors no. 1 and 2, heavily damaged by the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the anonymous workers -- which include employees of Tokyo Electric Power and other contract workers earning 9,000 yen ($110) a day -- have been exposed to dangerously high levels of radiation inside the stricken plant.

Known as the "Fukushima Fifty," the brave band of lower and mid-level managers must wear protective bodysuits to protect their skin from the poisonous radioactive particles that fill the air around them.

View the first photos below:

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• Tokyo Electric Power Co. workers collect data in the control room for Unit 1 and Unit 2 at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

• Tokyo Electric Power Co. worker looks at gauges in the control room for Unit 1 and Unit 2.

• Tokyo Electric Power Co. workers collect data in the control room for Unit 1 and Unit 2 at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

• In this photo released by Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, a collapsed eave lies outside the security gate for Unit 1 and Unit 2 of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

• Exterior of Fukushima Plant

View video of the plant, courtesy of Reuters, here:

Comments

[Chinanski]

03:14 PM on 03/27/2011

If you want to see real heroes, don't look at the wars around the world. Look at those guys on the pictures and thank the photographer. Every single one of them is bound to die within a couple of month and the real suffering lies ahead of them and their families.

But they are no managers and they are more than fifty. They are homeless people and former unemployed who were offered a few bucks and didn't know what they get into.

[John David Riser]

09:14 PM on 03/27/2011

Your basis for these claims?

[Chinanski]

08:13 AM on 03/28/2011

Here's the whole interview, unfortunately it only comes in German: http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/japanberichterstattung100.html

Here are some of the main points made by the broadcaster's Japan correspondent:

* It wasn't 50 people who went in and proceeded to clear up the site, it was rather a lot of people who would work in shifts - a lot of them were supposedly contract workers
*Hiring homless, underaged and foreign workers is supposedly 'common practice' in Japan; if they get sick, they're left without any compensation. They would be hired in parks where they resided and - with little knowledge of the dangers they would be exposed to, appointed to clean nuclear power plants.

[smolensk-lies]

02:29 AM on 03/27/2011

the attached table shows, among other things, mortality predictions for Pu ingestion.
http://www.ead.anl.gov/pub/doc/plutonium.pdf

roughly, if .5 cubic meters of Pu (239) , weighing about 10 tons, are dispursed into air, and that air is ingested/breathed , the Pu alone will raise cancer rates 100%(double) in a 100km x 100km area

how much MOX, with 5-7% Pu, has been released into water or air?

[smolensk-lies]

02:16 AM on 03/27/2011

wow. you'd think that with over 10x the fuel rods of Chernobyl, with a majority of the six reactors leaking, with the spent fuel ponds dry and the fuel burning to open air, that this story would get more space than Gadaffi's plastic surgery article here. you'd think 'wrong'

worse than Chernobyl, at least a '7.5' on that sil ly INES scale, closer to '8'

[Mark Weitzman]

01:53 AM on 03/27/2011

Almost 18 years in Tokyo. Seen all the crappy reporting by foreign “journalists” over the years. Trust only BBC World’s Chris Hogge – he lives in Tokyo. Disregard the majority of the Fukushima "reporting" elsewhere, including here at Huffpost World.

If you have a moment, please take a look at this article I wrote March 25 that explains why people in Japan are wearing masks, why the water is safe in Tokyo, when the power is off in the region, why Cup Noodle wasn't available for about 24 hours, and more

This article provides corrections to a number of the erroneous reports by the world media.

Op-Ed: Tokyo OK, foreign media’s sensational coverage shameful
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/305051

[strangiato]

03:38 PM on 03/28/2011

Some of us dumb Amaircuns have known for 35 years that Japanese citizens frequently wear cheap respirator masks in public. Since this is apparently a recent discovery for you - congratulations!
On the subject of discovery, you are woefully misinformed about what's going on environmentally in Japan. Even Japanese "authorities" are finally openly acknowledging that the Fukushima catastrophe may very well rival Chernobyl in terms of environmental impact.

Before you criticize a large group of informed people who are dedicated to getting the truth out about Fukushima - do just a little bit of research and you won't look so foolish.

[Mark Weitzman]

10:04 PM on 03/28/2011

If you reside anywhere but a "little Tokyo", find 10 passers-by , show them a photo of pedestrian s on the street in Tokyo and ask why some people are wearing masks in Tokyo. I have complete confidence the answer from the majority of folks will be about the "radiation in the air".

My article did not address environmen tal issues of Fukushima. My report was a rebuttal to the misreprese ntations made in the sensationa l reporting from abroad.

If you would take a moment to read my article, you will see that what I state is supported by reliable references and, well, 18 years living here in Tokyo.

[Michelle Amieux]

05:34 PM on 03/26/2011

Eerie!!!

[lcole3]

03:43 PM on 03/25/2011

I hope Japan will be able to recover quickly!




www.matterofopinion.com

[iam99]

02:45 PM on 03/25/2011

Has any authority assured the world that the white puffs, or clouds, that are seen are not metal oxide; in other words, that metals themselves are not burning?

[Christine Shackleton]

03:19 AM on 03/26/2011

This is really interesting-- the idea of super mini atomic bombs or worse-- and even the production of nerve or spread of nerve gas. But a different but old still not fully understood rections among metals with radiation as when eg you bury plastics they give off good dosages of radiation.

[Christine Shackleton]

08:56 AM on 03/25/2011

There is something we could do. And that is get the japanese and other world NGO,s to do something that was not available but in part came out of the Chernobyl affair but was used to measure old retired sailors who had been on board ships in atomic bomb areas.
It is a simple [relatively speaking ] test that Massey University uses in New Zealand and can be used from Harvard or John Hopkins or heidelberg or London or French microbiological centres. Similarly many microbiologists from Japan have practiced in the Australia, New Zealand regime and are expert .
eg your cousin who has been on a battleship where nearby an atomic bomb has gone off. They take some of his/her tissue and stain the DNA look under an electron microscope. This detects if radiation has affected people. The DNA strands show up rainbow colour. These people are often a littlen sick or cannot do what they did once before or think they are 1200 percent but are not.
The coloured DNA will allow diet and monitoring to be implemented see where there are groups affected. It is very succesful. It shows where all other tests , including psychological do not.
Summing there is a change in the DNA and it shows up rainbow coloured in positive test to radiation and this test can be done at any time er It his preventative aspects .
like the sabine polio vaccine innthis worlds largest catatstrophe we should promote this test

[Christine Shackleton]

04:10 AM on 03/25/2011

Does anyone here hazard a guess that of the 500,000 homes destroyed by the Tsunami-- [about the size of an average USA city ] - hazard a gues howmany of these houses had someone at home when the Tsunami destroyed their homes. For extent of destruction of the homes see this link
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20110321/japan/

[WonderingNThinking]

03:39 AM on 03/25/2011

Tepco webcam is off again.

[Apollos Dad]

03:38 AM on 03/25/2011

tinkr & all
New Main right under libya

[tinkr55]

04:54 AM on 03/25/2011

TY, AD
I hope it is not locked down...

[Apollos Dad]

04:57 AM on 03/25/2011

sure is

[termgirl]

03:27 AM on 03/25/2011

Have to get some shut-eye, my friends.
My background is in the pseudo sciences.(lol.;) psychology, and sociology.
I did take basic chemistry, biology, and anatomy classes.
That is the extent of my scientific expertise.
I didn't know of curies or becquerels.
Now I do have some rudimentary awareness.
These threads have been very educational.
It is what initiated the interest, that is so very sad and alarming.
So, thanks to all of you.

The people of Japan will weigh heavy on my heart as I try to sleep.

[Apollos Dad]

03:30 AM on 03/25/2011

Nite tg, be well

[tinkr55]

03:31 AM on 03/25/2011

G'nite, TG

[WonderingNThinking]

03:25 AM on 03/25/2011

I've moved to the other story on Japan.

Very sadly NHK is reporting that "Japan's nuclear safety agency says it is highly likely that the Number 3 reactor of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been damaged, causing the leak of high levels of radiation."

[Christine Shackleton]

03:45 AM on 03/25/2011

It was damaged immediately see link here

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20110321/japan/

[Christine Shackleton]

04:54 AM on 03/25/2011

and it emits plutonium which will mix with other radioactive matter -- lasting tens of thousands of years and deadly-- therefore socio-bilogically entering th elife cycle of eg harvested food for supermarkets

[Apollos Dad]

02:41 AM on 03/25/2011

Gov't asks people within 20-30 km of nuclear plant to leave voluntarily english.kyodonews.jp
by Reuters_TonyTharakan at 11:40 PM

[termgirl]

02:58 AM on 03/25/2011

These poor souls have few good options.

[Apollos Dad]

03:00 AM on 03/25/2011

if any.....this rumor was in the press 24hrs ago- yet only now do they make it official....wow

[Christine Shackleton]

03:39 AM on 03/25/2011

How many people-- that is -- how many homes and where in rough geographical terms will they go in the short ter and long term

[mrJJ]

02:41 AM on 03/25/2011

nite all...

[Apollos Dad]

02:44 AM on 03/25/2011

Nite JJ

[termgirl]

02:46 AM on 03/25/2011

Night, JJ.