First thing I'd do if I were fighting this nuclear disaster is get the Team the best gear.

[Octafish]

I mean, really. The hospitalized workers got contaminated when water flooded their boots.



I would get these guys the best around, maybe like this or this.



These days, the greedheads don't even try to make it look good.

They know that soon, they'll be replacing the high-paying union workers with robots. Like in Detroit.

[jberryhill]

1. or at least a pair of LL Bean duck shoes

Keeping water out of boots is a complicated technological problem.

[Octafish]

3. Mukluks

I know these to work at keeping out water.

[jberryhill]

5. No need to use offensive language

Mukluks to you too, pal.

[crickets]

2. Is that TAPE?

It looks like some of them are wearing flimsy little nylon booties held up with packing tape over who knows what kind of shoes. Yikes.

[Octafish]

4. Tape. I saw that and thought these guys aren't even getting decent clothing to fight nuke meltdown.

That is tough. Here's another image.

The workers who were burned when radioactive water seaped into their boots are behind the blue plastic sheet, for some reason.



I'd guess to keep them from getting ID'd by the media.

...A spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the workers were carrying radiation meters but ignored an alarm when it rang....

[crickets]

7. It's criminal. I am gobsmacked.

I saw that about the workers who ignored their dosimeters. I wonder if they were properly trained in using them or told to ignore them, or if they consciously decided to ignore them to get the job done. Haven't we already sent Japan a pump? It would be nice to kick in some decent emergency gear. What they're wearing now looks like minimal gear needed for working in an undamaged reactor on a normal day. Under these circumstances, it almost seems not worth the bother.

I'd guess to keep them from getting ID'd by the media.

Or their family and friends watching the news. So sad. :(

[Urban Prairie]

6. Spokesman for Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Hidehiko Nishiyama, saying:

"If they had followed the proper rules set out by the previous survey they would have had better attire. Specifically there was a problem when you think of how they got water in their shoes. Also they continued to work even though their dosimeter alarms were going off - perhaps there may have been a misunderstanding here"

Seriously?

So the contaminated workers HAD a choice in what protective attire that they could wear, but only if they had followed the "proper rules" set out by the previous survey?


So how did they get water in their shoes?

Wouldn't it have been much safer, if they wore boots?


They continued to work despite their dosimeters' alarms going off?

I find that hard to believe, unless their headgear or loud noises around them prevented them from hearing the alarms.

[Octafish]

9. The guy in 'long boots' wasn't hospitalized.

The guys in street shoes were.

Workers exposed to radiation in water 10,000 times normal level

Asahi.com
2011/03/26

EXCERPT...

Cobalt-60, iodine-131, cesium-137 and other substances, which do not normally exist in cooling water, were detected, the officials said.

SNIP...

The workers wore three layers of protective clothing, masks, helmets and gloves. But TEPCO gave them no instructions about their footwear because there were no deep water puddles the previous day.

The workers in ordinary work shoes were in the contaminated water for 40 to 50 minutes, and the tainted water had soaked through their clothes to their skin, according to officials.

Under an internal TEPCO rule, an official to gauge radioactivity levels is required to accompany workers and give instructions, but none did so for the three.

CONTINUED...

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201103250202.html

TEPCO sounds like a conservative company.

[AndyTiedye]

13. Wouldn't "Point a Geiger Counter at the Puddle Before Stepping In It" Be Part of the Procedure?

:wtf:

[AndyTiedye]

8. This is One Place Where they SHOULD Use Robots

I don't think I would be at all anti-labor to say that this is one job that really should be done by robots if it possibly can.
As Japan is the world leader in robotics, I'm really disappointed that they couldn't at least get a robot to hold a fire hose.


If it MUST be done by people, to give them anything less than the best protective gear available is unconscionable.

[Octafish]

12. Agree 100-percent. My mistake was mixing two ideas in one sentence.

Certainly, robots are needed at Fukushima Daiichi. Unfortunately, going from memory over the past few days, the facility was designed at a time when robots were not on the horizon. The ramps, stairways, doors, etc are designed for human conveyance -- all complicated by the damage from the earthquake, tsunami and various explosions since.

TEPCO, IMO, should have called for state-of-the-art robots who help the military, mining companies and others conduct dangerous operations immediately. Why they didn't, in my view, is a lack of concern for their human resources -- replace parts due for upgrade from biological to mechanical.

Regarding Detroit: Many American jobs were lost to offshoring -- many also were lost to automation. I've seen this happen in Detroit and the auto industry -- GM even ran an ad about a dejected robot who couldn't make the grade. No one on the tee vee, it seems to me, ever raised the idea about all the dejected and displaced auto workers. BTW: In Japan, many of the jobs that can now be done by robots are still done by people -- to keep them employed.

[me b zola]

10. I would make nuclear lobbyists & execs clean it up

They advocate for it against the best interest all of us who have to deal with the consequences. Let them sacrifice their pathetic lives to clean it up. Or just lock them inside the buildings that are freaking breaching.

[flamingdem]

11. Japanese work ethic = die for your company and don't complain

For real!