3:44pm UK, Friday March 18, 2011
Rebekah Cavanagh, Sky News Online
Police officers wore protective suits as they drove near
the nuclear plant.
The Japanese media have dubbed the elite squad of 180 technicians
the "Samurai Warriors" and even the "Nuclear Ninjas" as they try to
save their country.
One man, having already been exposed to dangerous levels of
radiation, told his wife: "Please continue to live well, I cannot
be home for a while."
While the young daughter of one of the workers wrote on Twitter:
"My dad went to the nuclear plant. I have never heard my mother cry
so hard."
She begged: "Please dad, come back alive."
Nuclear experts have said the men are on a suicide mission and that
not even their airtight suits can save them from contamination.
And if they survive, they will face a lifetime of health
problems.
But the
Fukushima Fifty, named as they are on a rotation of 50 at a time,
are working around the clock to stop the plant's reactors from
overheating by taking it in turns to cool them with
water.
The group, whose identities remain a mystery, stayed at the plant
after 700 of their colleagues fled when radiation levels peaked at
lethal levels.
Of those who decided to stay, five are known to have already died.
A further two are missing and at least 21 others have been
injured.
The seriously damaged Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.
Their bravery is reminiscent of the three men who volunteered to
swim to their deaths to save Russia during the Chernobyl disaster
in 1986.
Engineer Alexei Ananenko and soldiers Valeri Bezpalov and Boris
Baranov suited up in scuba-gear and swam through the radioactive
waters of the flooded chamber to release the gate valve and allow
the trapped water to drain out.
Many firemen and rescue workers also died from radioactive
contamination after rushing to the scene to help despite knowing
the risks.
A former worker at Chernobyl said: "The general came and said: 'I
would rather have 2,000 people contaminated if it lets 200 million
people live.'
"We were sent to work at the reactor, to clean up the
waste.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Fukushima-Nuclear-Plant-Workers-Are-Heroes-After-Risking-Own-Lives-To-Avert-Meltdown-In-Japan/Article/2011033
