Without question, the Japanese Firefighters are faced with a horrendous incident that keeps getting worse. One of the key tactics for now is keeping the reactor cores from going critical, which means dropping water from helicopters and operating monitors on the ground. 

For the firefighters on the ground, it stands to reason that the amount of radiation they are encountering will cause cancer and a pre-mature death. They know this, yet just like the Russian firefighters in Chernobyl, many will perish because of the lethal exposure to radiation.

  1. Would you sacrifice your life for others, knowing you will die within months? 
  2. Who would be selected to do the job, knowing it has to be done? 
  3. Do you think the politicians and opportunists attacking firefighters today ever think about this part of emergency services?

CBz

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As one who is a friend of Capt in the Tokyo Fire Service I learn a lot from him from our emails and the info I get from him in the mail. The toughest firefighters are the rescue service firefighters.
They first have to train as firefighters then retrain to be rescue firefighters.
Its like going into the Marines.
There is one story that has been missed about firefighters from Japan that sacrificed their lives to protect their town.
40 firefighters were sent to close the seawall to the town they lived in because the power was knocked out to close it. They died trying to manualy push it close.
One thing about Tokyo Fire Service. They have many career and volunteer firefighters to protect the city.
There is no internal fighting over this because they work together to protect their city.
I don't know what they are doing in Japan for the mitigation. If they go in, set up un/manned monitors and trucks, then back out... I think with the dosimitry readings, they will be fine. yes they will be exposed to higher readings. The Chernobyl(sp)firefighters didn't have a clue what would happen to them. I would risk my life to save others, any day. I would not go in and pick up pieces of "fuel rod". They can concrete the whole structure if it comes to that, like they finally did with Chernobyl. There is no reason to sacrifice firefighters.
Yes, I would without question or hesitation and as the Officer, I would select myself to be the one to operate in the hot zone. The thing about my crew is that there wouldn't be a fight of who has to go it would be a fight about who doesn't get the opportunity to go. Now, as far as the politicians, I have nothing even remotely good to say about any of them except that I pray that God(Allah) grants them due retribution for all that they are.
That would be another good question. Just how long is the permissible work time for a person before they hit ceiling and can no longer be in the exposure zone. Are we talking 5 minutes, an hour, a day? I personally don't know but I'd have to be inclined to say that it's probably not long.
Intervention procedures are different. Cooling the reactor after the fuel pods were damaged is impossible.In fact I think will be needed in the sarcophagus of the reactor concreting. However all due respect to Japanese firefighters.
From here - http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-04-03/a-japanes...

A Japanese Firefighter Talks Surviving the Nuclear Reactors
Ken'ichi Kunisawa and his fellow firefighters braved boiling nuclear reactors for more than 13 hours. He talks to Lennox Samuels about radiation fears and why this wasn't a kamikaze mission.
There is no oath that I'm aware of that requires firefighters to sacrifice their lives for others. As for me, I'm willing to risk my life for others. But a suicide mission? I don't know the answer to that.
Spot on WP! There's a big difference between weighing up the risk and literally undertaking a suicide mission.

I don't think anyone can properly answer that until they're faced with the same situation....
Mike, here's the transcript of an interview with one of the Tokyo firefighters who worked on the Fukushima Reactor #3 - the MOX reactor.


The name of his department is pretty cool - who knew that Tokyo had "Hyper" firefighters?
Coincidentally, I post the same link a bit earlier.
This is a quote from FF Ken'ichi Kunisawa;

“I admit we had concerns about [reactor No. 3], but we’d been trained to do this. That’s how we became members of a special unit. We’re proud of being special guys, like the Green Berets.”
Just how long is the permissible work time for a person before they hit ceiling and can no longer be in the exposure zone. Are we talking 5 minutes, an hour, a day? I personally don't know but I'd have to be inclined to say that it's probably not long.

It really comes down to simply Time, Distance, and Shielding. Calculating stay times takes in account such factors and also intensity of radiation, so bottom line it really will vary depending upon the situation and placement. If you read the article Ben posted on pg 1 where they interview one of the firefighters, there is a part where radiation was higher in places and less intense in others.
I'm dealing with the same issue... learning curve. However, I did see a friends iPad with a case/keyboard combo from BestBuy. It looked good...
The use of the term "liquidators"... What does this term mean to you? Could it be firefighters spraying water (or liquid) on something? Just guessing here Nenad!

Hope all is well in Croatia.

Stay safe brother,

CBz

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