Nuclear Warriors Find Respite on Ship in Fight to Avert Meltdown
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Half a dozen crew of the Kaiwo Maru bowed as Tokyo Electric Power Co. engineer Kenji Kawada emerged from the belly of the four-masted sailing ship and returned to fighting Japan’s worst civil nuclear disaster.
They applauded as he walked down the gang-plank and were still waving as Kawada, 52, disappeared in a minibus that would return him to duty. Kawada is one of dozens of engineers and other workers who since March 11 have been sleeping on the floor in freezing temperatures and living on biscuits as they race to contain nuclear leaks at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant north of Tokyo.