Are you depressed because your 99 weeks of extended unemployment is about to run out? Are you already bald? Do you have no plans for having kids? Do you like wearing the color white? Does being jammed into a head to toe protective suit appeal to you? Do you think life expectancy calculations are a crock? Do you like sushi? Do you like karioki? Do you trust government officials?
If the answer to these questions is yes, have we got a job for you. Book that flight to Japan ASAP.
NO. This is not an Onion story.
Exclusive: WANTED: U.S. workers for crippled Japan nuke plant
(Reuters) – As foreign assignments go this must be just about the most dangerous going.
A U.S. recruiter is hiring nuclear power workers in the United States to help Japan gain control of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant, which has been spewing radiation.
The qualifications: Skills gained in the nuclear industry, a passport, a family willing to let you go, willingness to work in a radioactive zone.
The rewards: Higher than normal pay and the challenge of solving a major crisis.
“About two weeks ago we told our managers to put together a wish list of anyone interested in going to Japan,” said Joe Melanson, a recruiter at specialist nuclear industry staffing firm Bartlett Nuclear in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on Thursday.
So far, the firm has already signed up some workers who will be flying to Japan on Sunday.
Melanson said there will be less than 10 workers in the initial group. Others are expected to follow later, he added.
Plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) has appealed to the nuclear industry outside of Japan for assistance as the crisis has spiraled beyond their control.
On Thursday, the company said radiation levels in water found in tunnels under the plant was 10,000 times the normal level and radioactive iodine 131 was found in ground water near No.1 reactor of the complex.
Melanson said Bartlett Nuclear had been approached by sub-contractors linked to the General Electric-Hitachi nuclear joint venture. GE designed the Fukushima reactors.
“At first, we had no details about the duration of the job or the positions needed. The only requirement was that you have a valid passport,” Melanson said.
But as the job details came in, Bartlett managers scoured the list of volunteers and selected several engineers and technicians “we knew would perform well for us over there.”
So just what type of person would go into a damaged nuclear plant that is throwing out dangerous levels of radiation?
NOT ROUGHNECKS
Melanson said these are not roughnecks prepared to risk their health for a quick paycheck but senior technicians and engineers who have come up through the ranks.
Some have families. “Anytime we have international business, it’s up to the workers to square it with their wives.”
Japan has put in an exclusion zone of 20 kilometers around the plant. Several experts have recommended that zone should be expanded.
Melanson could not say for certain where the workers would stay but said initially they would be based in Tokyo and drive the 480 kilometer (300 miles) roundtrip to the Daiichi plant. Translators will be provided so they don’t have to speak Japanese.
“The pay will definitely be better than the average pay (for a nuclear technician) over here,” Melanson said, but declined to specify exactly what the average salary would be. It is not clear how long they will be working in Japan, but Melanson estimated it would be at least a month.
The workers are not expected to come into contact with the highest levels of radiation.
“These are not ‘jumpers’ rushing into a room. TEPCO is bringing in robots to help limit human exposure to high levels of radiation,” he said.
“Jumpers” is the industry term for people who enter highly radioactive environments to quickly perform a task. The practice was common in the United States in the 1970s and early 80s.
“It’s still a job that exists but it’s much rarer than in the past – the job is mostly performed mechanically with engineered robotics these days,” said Rock Nelson, staffing manager at Nelson Nuclear Corp in Richland, Washington, who has worked in the nuclear industry for almost 30 years.
Melanson said the workers would receive all the equipment needed to do their jobs and safeguard their health.
The roles include ground water and radiation specialists, and spent fuel experts.
Other international nuclear firms have also sent workers to Japan, including France‘s Areva SA and U.S.-based Westinghouse.
Some experts think the crisis could take months to resolve.
“Tepco will be facing specific and unique problems in each plant,” said Nelson.
“Each specific problem may require the engineering of a specific piece of machinery. They will almost certainly have to send a jumper or two in but only as a last resort. This is going to run on for weeks if not months.”
StuckInNJ says:
One would think the possibility of a penis growing out of one’s forehead would be a showstopper.
I cannot fucking believe the firm has “already signed up some workers”. How desperate for money can some people be??
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1st April 2011 at 1:36 pm
Pirate Jo says:
I think they are very brave.
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1st April 2011 at 1:57 pm
KaD says:
If I had the experience and didn’t have a significant other I’d do it. I just feel like life stinks and I have nothing left to loose.
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1st April 2011 at 2:12 pm
Reverse Engineer says:
I read an article that said the Japanese Plant workers who made around $200/day are getting around $3000/day to brave the Gamma Rays.
One suspects those of them who have kids figure they will guts it out and put a tidy sum away for the next generation.
RE
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1st April 2011 at 2:14 pm
Axel says:
I would bet that there will be a movie. Bruce Willis will be in it. He will be a nuclear engineer who will have to brave the horrors of the Fukushima plant, fighting off mutated survivors to stop a chain reaction that could blow away the northern half of Tokyo, where his grandchildren are attending school.
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1st April 2011 at 2:34 pm
Dan says:
“The only requirement was that you have a valid passport”
and a thyroid the size of a mini-van.
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1st April 2011 at 2:40 pm
Plato_Plubius says:
Crazy! Mine as well take the job as a
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1st April 2011 at 2:49 pm
Jiggerjuice says:
If I knew Fukushima was going to be more fucked up than TEPCO admitted from the start, does that make me an expert?
Put me in a lead bodysuit and ship me to Japan! 10 oz of gold per day, bitchez
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1st April 2011 at 2:58 pm
Plato_Plubius says:
*above** oops…mine = might…or in other words “brain fart!”
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1st April 2011 at 2:59 pm
Muck About says:
@PirateJo: Bravery has nothing to do with it. Stupidity has everything to do with it. Couple stupidity with gobs of money and you’ll always find some slim brained macho types willing to be bought and turned to toast. Going the expat route to find workers is a last resort by TEPCO in an impossible situation. Things are going sour very fast and far worse than advertised.
With Tokyo (30 million people) only 150 miles to the South, they need people to sacrifice to make the attempt NOT to clean it up, but to bury it. The Japanese workers there would likely walk right into Hell voluntarily to try and fix it – that’s the kind of loyalty and “honor” system they have, but they are running out of Japanese who haven’t already been overexposed to radiation. They don’t need dozens of martyrs to add to their list of ills.
So they recruit outside Japan and buy martyrs from all comers dumb enough to trade their lives for money.
@KaD: I don’t know how to address that. Your significant other might be able to help if he/she was in the know about how you feel.
I’ve been through periods of that feeling – especially after being diagnosed with leukemia back in 2001. With 20/20 hindsight, I realized I’d exhibited symptoms as far back as 1995 and since the life expectancy of someone with what I have is 5 years, I should have been dead before I was diagnosed with it. I got pretty despondent there for a while going through multiple radiation treatments.
Then I decided what would be, would be. I have now decided that I want to live as long as possible to help bankrupt Social Security and just to see what the Hell is going to happen as TSHTF.
After facing your mortality, life becomes much more interesting.
MA
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1st April 2011 at 3:09 pm
Pirate Jo says:
MuckAbout, between you living as long as possible and me refusing to breed, we will bankrupt that piece of crap.
I don’t know that everyone going to Japan is doing it for the money. I think some of them feel they are saving lives.
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1st April 2011 at 3:14 pm
Centerfield says:
Japan had no problems 65+ years ago recruiting their own people to fly bomb-laden planes into the decks of U.S. warships. Why should this be any different to them? It’s all about honor. I can see the first written report that these U.S. cliff divers are going to write. “Their situation is FUBAR.”
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1st April 2011 at 4:01 pm
bigargon says:
hey maybe they can hire dr. bruce banner…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj26N10Ymlg
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1st April 2011 at 4:47 pm
Goldorack says:
the core of the number 3 is breached. good luck guys…
it makes me think about about a document I watched about Tchenobil’s “liquidators”.
according to their own non-governmental organisation, 100.000 of the people sent in the area to “liquidate” the problem are dead today.
the first people that reached the area were helicopter pilots taken in fighting units from Afghanistan, sent other the place to drop sand on the magma. according to a surviving cameramen, cameras lasted never more than 2 minutes or 15 shots before radioactivity toasted them. instruments were unable to measure it, because it was off-scale. it had never been planned that a human would hold this devices in such a hell. all the pilots of the first 2 weeks are dead.
then they sent commandos on the roof with lead aprons, lead sheets over their arms and legs. the guys picked up graphite and plutonium debris BY HAND. they usually took the lethal dose after 45 seconds and had to withdraw after this time. it was just to puke blood in a row until they died covered of burns. just like in “saving private Ryan” on the beach. all dead.
then they sent robots. robots did well few hours and stopped functionning, toasted.
they sent bunch of robots, until they were short.
then they asked for voluntary jumpers, lets say kamikazes, to clean up the roof.
they had 40 seconds to work. a survivor said “when your eyeballs started to be painful and that you had a taste of metal in the mouth, it was the sign that you had stayed more than 40 seconds”. 80% of losses, all others with cancer.
they discovered that the melting core was slowly melting the concrete under the containment building. they also discovered that a huge amount of water was trapped just under. according to their calculation no more secret today, they expected a blast equal to 3,3 Megaton as a result if the plutonium magma falled into this lake and turned the whole shit in hydrogen. main cities from Ukraine would have been ripped off.
they took 285 volunteers in coal mines. those guys dug in two weeks a 300 yards tunnel under the reactor WITHOUT protection, emptied the water and filled the space of concrete. almost all are dead today exept 10. they asked a survivor why he did that and he answered ‘It was our Stalingrad, we called it the battle of Tchenobil. our goal was to save the country, the people, to save the world. when it ended one of our guys sacrified to go put a red flag on the top of the plant”.
today the few survivors that are lucky are all crippled. they have 400$ per month to survive.
in Ukraine, most of them are given 100$ when their medication alone cost 40$/month.
all I wanted to say is that we should have a thought for those who sacrified everything for others 25 years ago. we should say thank you to the iron-balled workers from the east. without them, this shit would have been far worse.
there is still 120 remaining tons of plutonium under the sarcophagus. plutonium’s half live is 24.000 years for the most common isotope. the current building start degrading quickly under the radiations and concrete turns to dust…
pretty cool…
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1st April 2011 at 7:30 pm
Opinionated Bloviator says:
You could still have children after accepting that job. Chop off your testicles and freeze them in liquid nitrogen and your good to go. :-0. You can even have “plastic balls” installed, like neutered dogs and Congress representitives get, so you still feel like a man. Bargain!. Book a flight to Japan today….
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1st April 2011 at 7:34 pm
Reverse Engineer says:
So how much do you think Tokyo CRE is worth now?
RE
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1st April 2011 at 7:58 pm
Punk in Drublic says:
Chicks dig Heroes.
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1st April 2011 at 8:10 pm
newsjunkie says:
If they were trying to save people’s lives here, wouldn’t they just cover the whole thing in concrete? I think TEPCO & GE are trying to save their own asses and their own money by risking other people’s lives.
And they’re trying to tell us that radiation isn’t harmful? WTF??? After convincing the average moron that radiation is fine, how will they sell the justification for keeping Iran from having nukes?
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1st April 2011 at 8:55 pm
Shadows says:
I’d do it if they let me have a cool Gordon Freeman HAZMAT suit.
Just kidding. I’m not qualified for this anyway.
I wouldn’t say these guys are dumb, as some commenters have insinuated. Ballsy, yes, and a little daredevil, but you couldn’t become qualified to do something like this if you don’t have a respectable level of intelligence. They know the risks better than we do I’m sure. Maybe they view themselves as heroes.
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1st April 2011 at 10:29 pm
Reverse Engineer says:
Encasing the reactors in concrete won’t help much. There are indications the molten fuel is critical again after pooling up, which means it won’t cool, just get hotter. It will likely melt through the concrete base, which is already probably cracked and damaged from the earthquake and explosions that already took place. Unless they can design robots able to withstand the radiation and collect up the fuel somehow, its going to work its way into the water table.
The current evacuation zone is 40 km, I can’t see how anyone would want ot live inside 100 km, if even that. Tokyo is now underpowered with a contaminated watershed. They are fucked no matter how you cut it.
RE
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1st April 2011 at 11:02 pm
howard in nyc says:
well, my man RE, i scoffed and made an easy joke when you predicted this disaster would eclipse hiroshima + nagasaki.
it ain’t settled yet. and the immediate death toll will be far short. but i think you’re gonna be notching that forecast in the win column.
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1st April 2011 at 11:38 pm
Reverse Engineer says:
@howie
I wish I was wrong.
RE
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1st April 2011 at 12:00 am