Current Event about situation in Japan

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/japan-tsunami/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503051&objectid=10712802

After the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan, everyone has been evacuated out of the area. One of the places affected by the natural disasters is Fukushima Daiichi. Everyone was evacuated but 50 employees working to avoid the possible meltdowns of the earthquake- hit nuclear power plant. These workers are working and trying to cool down fuel rods by injecting seawater into them. The is a very dangerous job, not only because of the potential danger of the power plant breaking but also because of the radiation and health care of the workers. In one hour, David Richardson states that those at Fukushima are receiving in one hour the same amount of radiation as a United States nuclear worker receives in his whole career. This could lead to long- term health issues, and diseases such as cancer.

"You are still breathing this into your lungs, and there is passive absorption in the skin, eyes and mouth and we really do not know what long-term impact that would have," says Lee Tin-lap, a toxicologist at a Hong Kong university.

Recently the radioactivity showed that the radiation level was 400 millisieverts per hour, which is 400 times the amou nt the normal parson is supposed to have in a year.

"There is no doubt it is an amount that would have (a harmful) effect on the human body”, says Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.

Now, we have proper gear and clothing against radiation, but this hardly compensates for all the harmful things in the air. Now, around 200,000 people have evacuated from nine towns within 20km of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

I am pretty shocked hearing that the situation in Japan is this bad- I thought it was just a tsunami with no major consequences, except for slight damage. However, this has been affecting lives of a great number of people. I think that we shouldn’t be risking the lives of these workers to make sure the power plant isn’t going to explode, since the radiation and just danger in general from more natural disasters, or the nuclear power plant itself. Maybe, instead we could pour the seawater in through planes or helicopters, not risking human lives. Otherwise, if our technology is advanced enough we could use robots. If the nuclear power plant is going to explode, 50 workers pouring seawater on it probably isn’t going to stop it from happening. Then they would die together with everyone else. If it doesn’t explode, they would just be wasting their health and harm their bodies, exposed to lethal radiation. Because of the situation with all the natural disasters, I just think that the wisest thing to do would be to evacuate the area and just get everyone as far away as possible from the power plant.