Japan Churns Through ‘Heroic’ Workers Limited by Radiation
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More workers were drafted for the frontline of Japan’s biggest nuclear disaster as radiation limits forced Tokyo Electric Power Co. to replace members of its original team trying to avert a nuclear meltdown.
The utility increased its workforce at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant to 322 yesterday from 180 on March 16 as it tried to douse water over spent nuclear fuel rods to prevent them melting and leaking lethal radiation. Levels beside exposed rods would deliver a fatal dose in 16 seconds, said David Lochbaum, a nuclear physicist for the Union of Concerned Scientists and a former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission safety instructor.