"Company Calling In Retirees & Workers From Unaffected Plants For Help; Perhaps For Sacrifice"

[Hissyspit]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/science/15workers.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Radiation Exposure Could Curtail Workers’ Efforts
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Published: March 14, 2011

- snip -

They are operating in places that have been contaminated by radioactive isotopes from all four reactors. Technicians who have not been evacuated face an escalating exposure, and will have to be replaced if the fight is to go on.

“If they exceed a certain amount, they can’t go back in for a day or a week or longer,” said Dr. Lew Pepper, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health who has studied the effects of radiation on nuclear weapons workers. And the pool of available replacements is finite, he said: “What do you do? You don’t have a lot of people who can do this work.”

The nuclear plants’ operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, has declined to provide details about the workers — who they are, how many there are and how they are being assigned to do the most hazardous work.

But Arnold Gundersen, a consultant who worked in American plants nearly identical to the stricken Japanese ones, said it was likely that the company was calling in retirees and workers from unaffected plants for help. And perhaps for sacrifice, as well. “They may also be asking for people to volunteer to receive additional exposure,” he said.

MORE

[Skittles]

1. it sure won't be the head honchos "sacrificing"

[Rex]

2. Don't be so sure of that.

For all we know they volunteered first. I doubt a single one is thinking self-preservation right now.

[Toucano]

3. Japan's corporate culture is different than the west's. n/t

[riverwalker]

4. send the GE engineers n/t

[Rex]

5. No thanks, we have the pros on the grounds right now

working to save everyones lives. Goodluck to the teams sacrificing themselves for others. May you be successful.

[riverwalker]

send Jeffrey R. Immelt

F'krs make a fortune selling these defective time bombs all over the world, and the CEO gets a bonus.

CEO Of GE Saw Compensation Jump To $15.2 Million

General Electric Co. Chairman and CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt's 2010 compensation more than doubled to $15.2 million as the company benefited from a recovering economy.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=134549481

[Hannah Bell]

9. "benefited from a recovering economy" = lol.

[Vinnie From Indy]

6. Unbelievable nightmare scenario

I remember watching a video tape of Russian soldiers at Chernobyl running out onto what looked like a rooftop and grabbing chunks of the fuel rods and throwing them over the side into a pit that was later covered in concrete. I think all are dead now.

[applegrove]

7. I was looking for a poem on heroes to post. And I found this about an aviation hero

from WWII.


High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

[pinkkillersheep]

8. I can't help but wonder how I would react if I was one of these workers.

[JoeyT]

10. In their shoes I'd agree on one condition.

The CEO and everyone for 2 management layers down would have to be there with me.

Edited to add: Two conditions. They'd have to be there and they'd have to be quiet.