'Nuclear Ninja' Suicide Mission To Save Japan

A handful of "heroes" working to avert a total meltdown at Japan's crippled nuclear plant have told loved ones not to expect them to return home.




The Japanese media have dubbed the elite squad of 180 technicians the "Samurai Warriors" and even the "Nuclear Ninjas" as they try to save their country.

One man, having already been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, told his wife: "Please continue to live well, I cannot be home for a while."

While the young daughter of one of the workers wrote on Twitter: "My dad went to the nuclear plant. I have never heard my mother cry so hard."

She begged: "Please dad, come back alive."

Nuclear experts have said the men are on a suicide mission and that not even their airtight suits can save them from contamination.
And if they survive, they will face a lifetime of health problems.
But the Fukushima Fifty, named as they are on a rotation of 50 at a time, are working around the clock to stop the plant's reactors from overheating by taking it in turns to cool them with water.

The group, whose identities remain a mystery, stayed at the plant after 700 of their colleagues fled when radiation levels peaked at lethal levels.

Of those who decided to stay, five are known to have already died. A further two are missing and at least 21 others have been injured.
Experts have said that not even their airtight suits will protect them from contamination.

Their bravery is reminiscent of the three men who volunteered to swim to their deaths to save Russia during the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

Engineer Alexei Ananenko and soldiers Valeri Bezpalov and Boris Baranov suited up in scuba-gear and swam through the radioactive waters of the flooded chamber to release the gate valve and allow the trapped water to drain out.

Many firemen and rescue workers also died from radioactive contamination after rushing to the scene to help despite knowing the risks.

A former worker at Chernobyl said: "The general came and said: 'I would rather have 2,000 people contaminated if it lets 200 million people live.'

"We were sent to work at the reactor, to clean up the waste. Now, only half of my unit is still alive."
 
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