How Long Can Nuclear Plant Employees Work Safely?


The nuclear situation in Japan took a turn for the worse yesterday after another explosion at one of the nuclear reactors damaged by last week’s natural disasters. The front-page headline in the Washington Post calls it a “Triple Disaster.” Several hours after the explosion—the third in four days—radiation levels were several times what a person should be exposed to in a year. They decreased dramatically, however, over the course of the next few hours. 

The Post says Japanese citizens are frustrated with the government’s vague statements. A no-fly zone has been instituted around the nuclear reactors; residents in a 12-mile zone surrounding the plant have been urged to evacuate. The Post says the lack of forthcoming information has made the “usually deferential press turn vicious,” telling Tokyo Electric officials at a press conference: “We want answers, not apologies.”

A sidebar story in the New York Times answers a question I had: At what point is it no longer safe for the workers at the nuclear plant to be there? The Times says the key people who have been on site will near their limit of radiation soon and they’ll have to be replaced with people who may not know the plant as well.

It’s interesting to note the very wide spectrum of alarm on today’s front pages. It ranged from the very composed Wall Street Journal (“Japan’s Nuclear Crisis Escalates”) to the apocalyptic New York Post (“Melting Point”). Below we arranged several from Underplayed to Measured to Alarmist. The New York Daily News got top prize for ringing the alarm bell in our backyard:

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