Monday, December 12, 2011

More on the Decon Worker Who Died on Site: "Nothing to Do with Radiation/Decon", Says Government

According to the latest in the NHK News, the worker was cleaning out the side drains at the district assembly hall in the morning. (For my report from the press conference yesterday, see my post here.)

I just hate to think how radioactive the sludge was. There is no indication that the government (this project was government-planned and funded and directed) had measured the density of the soil or sludge that it was requesting the workers to remove.

The decontamination technology for that kind of operation in Japan is hand, shovel, trowel, and sandbag.

Beyond criminal, and all the spokesman said in the yesterday's press conference was "We don't know the details, but the death is definitely not caused by the radiation, and it has nothing to do with the decontamination work".

Just to remind you that their definition of a death by the radiation for this government and TEPCO is an acute radiation poisoning which knocks out a person in an instant of the exposure to the radiation source.

Furthermore, when he said the death had nothing to do with the decon work, he had to clarify upon being further questioned by a reporter. All he meant was that the worker didn't die while he was doing the decon work.

I watched the press conference yesterday. The unease of the government spokesman was exceptional. At times, he simply couldn't even speak, trying to find appropriate words to say.

With these in mind, here's NHK Japanese (11:18PM JST 12/12/2011):

福島県伊達市で除染作業をしていた60歳の男性が、車の中で倒れているのが見つかり、死亡が確認されました。男性の死亡原因について内閣府は「除染作業と関係はない」としています。

A 60-year-old man was found collapsed in a car and confirmed dead. He was doing the decontamination work in Date City in Fukushima Prefecture. The Cabinet Office [which planned the work] says the death "has nothing to do with the decontamination work".

内閣府と警察によりますと、12日午後1時ごろ、福島県の伊達市下小国地区で宮城県の建設会社に勤めている60歳の男性が車の中で倒れているのが見つかり、病院に運ばれましたが、およそ1時間後に死亡が確認されました。男性は、下小国地区にある集会場近くで午前中から国が委託して行っている除染活動に参加し、側溝の泥を集める作業をしたあと、会社の車の中で昼食をとっていたということです。内閣府は「男性の死亡原因と除染作業に関係はない」としていますが、詳しい理由は明らかにしていません。

According to the Cabinet Office and the Police, a 60-year-old man was found collapsed in a car in Shimo-Oguni District of Date City in Fukushima Prefecture at around 1PM on December 12. The man worked for a construction company in Miyagi Prefecture. He was taken to a hospital, but was confirmed dead about an hour later. The man participated in the decontamination work assigned by the national government near the district assembly hall in the morning. He scooped the sludge in the side drains, and then he was eating lunch in the company car, it was reported. The Cabinet Office says "The cause of death has nothing to do with the decontamination work", without revealing the details.

6 comments:

Atomfritz said...

"Just to remind you that their definition of a death by the radiation for this government and TEPCO is an acute radiation poisoning which knocks out a person in an instant of the exposure to the radiation source."

Well, it takes an exposition of way more than 100 Sievert in short time to really incapacitate and kill people in place (-> neutron bomb).

It is almost impossible to instakill people with less.
Daghlian (5.1 sievert) survived for 25 days, Slotin (21 sievert) survived nine days.
Everybody of the liquidators who collected the nuclear fuel in Chernobyl with bare hands survived at least for a few days.

If you are curious, read the report of an accident where a worker got 45 sievert chest irradiation and 250 sievert hand irratiation.
He survived for 66 hours, however the intensive emergency treatment including hand amputation probably was no fun, as the medical report and his facial expression on the photo on pg. 31 indicate.
Link: http://www-pub.iaea.org/mtcd/publications/pdf/pub1106_scr.pdf

Another accident report where an irradiation facility worker received 15 sievert and survived 113 days under intensive medical care is also quite interesting, not only because of the many photos.
Link: www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1010_web.pdf

Too sad I couldn't find such a report on the Tokaimura criticality accidents' victims.

Anonymous said...

He should have smiled then radiation would not have come to him.

iconoclast said...

Anonymous @ 10:49 said "He should have smiled then radiation would not have come to him."

By the same token, you should take a dump then you wouldn't be so full of shyte.

Anonymous said...

ian, 10:49 PM was being completely sarcastic. Dr. Yamashita's quote, "radiation doesn't come to those who smile", is a bit of a running joke around here. And with good reason--Yamashita is a useless happy-speak government douche bag.

Anonymous said...

What about people who are more sensitive to this than others. You speak of rare cases of longevity under exposure but there could be others who may receive a much smaller dose and die instantly.

Anonymous said...

Number of deaths will be enormous of course,
but could you please inform us about the dramatic truth hidden by the Japanese government: monsters babies are born in Japan:

http://message.in.a.bottle.over-blog.com/article-carnet-de-voyage-87627327.html

extracted and translated from this recent french testimony:

"beaucoup de cas de mort prématurée ou d’enfants difformes à qui il manque le cerveau ou qui ont ce qu’on appelle des « cœurs de Tchenrobyl », à savoir des cœurs défectueux, des malformations etc… "

"many cases of premature death or deformed children who lack the brains or have so-called "Chernobyl heart", ie, defective hearts, birth etc."

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