Slashdot Mirror
Heroism Is Part of a Nuclear Worker's Job
Hugh Pickens writes "In 1988, Michael Friedlander was a newly minted shift technical adviser at a nuclear power plant near the Gulf Coast when Hurricane Gilbert, a Category 5 storm, was bearing down on the plant. They received word that all workers should leave except for critical plant personnel, and there was never a question: 'my team and I would stay, regardless of what happened.' 'The situation facing the 50 workers left at Fukushima is a nuclear operator's worst nightmare,' writes Friedlander. 'But the knowledge that a nuclear crisis could occur, and that we might be the only people standing in the way of a meltdown, defines every aspect of an operator's life.' The field attracts a very particular kind of person, says Friedlander, and the typical employee is more like a cross between a jet pilot and a firefighter: highly trained to keep a technically complex system running, but also prepared to be the first and usually only line of defense in an emergency. 'We will likely hear numerous stories of heroism over the next several days, of plant operators struggling to keep water flowing into the reactors, breathing hard against their respirators under the dim rays of a handheld flashlight in the cold, dark recesses of a critically damaged nuclear plant, knowing that at any moment another hydrogen explosion could occur.'"
The severity rating of the crisis has now been raised from 4 to 5 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, and Japan's Prime Minister called the situation "very grave."
They said they are rotating out workers once they reach "maximum lifetime exposure" of 100-250 mili-servients. Most workers are only staying for 24 hours before they are "retired" out and a fresh person brought in to replace them.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
If I understood things correctly the Japanese authorities now allow radiation doses up to 250mSv for the workers.
To put this in perspective, natural background radiation is aproximately 1-3 mSv per year , while at 10.000mSv death is to be expected.
Anything above 100mSv is definitively carcinogenic, and above 1000mSv you will see serious bone marrow damage.
250mSv is probably not going to give you acute radiation sickness, but it certainly is not going to be good for you. In particular it will increase your risk for cancer.
I have a lot of respect for the workers at the plant who risk their health and work hard to prevent a disaster. But I also think it's an irresponsible policy to require this kind of heroism from people. I have only contempt for the people who ignored the IAEA warning about Japanese reactors a couple of years ago, and for the people who are still deciding to build new reactors near fault lines without sufficient safety precautions to withstand the worst earthquakes.
The reactor should have been safe. Better able to withstand earthquake and tsunami, and more, better, and more reliable backup systems.
The actual earthquake, Where the ground moved around, did no significant damage to the plant. It was the tsunami that destroyed the tanks for the diesel fuel for the emergency diesel generators (all 13 EDGs). This along with the loss of outside transmission losses meant no power to run the pumps for feedwater into the reactor vessel.
Many newer plant have completely passive systems, fed by gravity and other things that will work without electricity. One thing you have in an abundance after a nuclear accident is heat. some of the older plants and many reactors (especially in the navy) have pumps that run off of steam.
the plant I speak of is a little different from theirs. It's a PWR, theirs was a BWR. Our Aux feed system (with three separate trains) runs off of aux feed. in the event of an accident the natural circulation of the primary would move that heat to the steam generators with or without pumps running. The aux feed system which can be run with or without electricity will provide feedwater to remove decay heat from the Reactor.
There are Seismic considerations to everything we do as well. A similar earthquake and tsunami would not destroy our EDGs. Thus I doubt any resulting accident would be nearly as severe, our plant is 5 years newer
with regard to them being required to stay, I doubt that anyone was required to stay. I know if there was an accident where I work, (even if it was as severe) there would be no question that I would stay. Along with many others. I was in the coast guard before this. I was a sea marshal for a short time. I was a firefighter, repair team member, damage control team member. Many others as well would see it as their duty to stay, even if the company didn't ask. I personally know people from here who have volunteered to go help the Japanese plants.
Oh Crap, I'm an optimist.....
NASA's Maximum allowable limit of radiation is 1400 mSv, and this elevates cancer risk by 3%., http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20070010704_2007005310.pdf (p.19). These workers have been exposed to 250. Everyone talking about "obscenely high radiation levels" has been misled, and needs to do some more research then reading pop newspapers.