Tepco Worker: Shoes melted that first night

Scary retelling of one workers brave resolve to stay with the evolving emergency despite a stricken reactors escalating problems of no power, repeated aftershocks, and overheating reactor core. Talk about dedication...

The incredible heat was underscored by one worker, who said that, when he set a foot on the torus (scaffolding) inside the reactor building, the soles of his shoes instantly melted.

Torrus has a walkway and ladders suspended above it for access to the primary reactor pressure vessel. The walls of the vessel are 5" in thick Stainless steel. So he is inside the building climbing up the side of the reactor vessel in the dark to reach a relief valve and his shoes are melting...

TEPCO said it took account of the risk of radioactive exposure and made related provisions, such as having the on-site work performed by older workers.

Well, thats good. they are closer to retirement anyway.

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WOW.....those guys are freaking heroic! (the workers I mean) I can't imagine that kind of dedication and resolve, but that is something the Japanese are known for. I admire those men greatly....it had to be so scary.

Slightly BS.

The shoes would have been melting not because of the reactor being very hot but because of the lack of ventilation in the reactor containment building.

That first night there would have still been water in the reactor and that would have limited the heat buildup in the reactor its self.
but the lack of ventilation in the reactor containment building would have caused everything in the containment building to start to overheat including the metal walkways.

The fact that someone could go into the containment building means the reactor had not blown yet as the radiation became lethal when it did.

And without water in the reactor it would have been lethal because the water is the main shielding in the reactor.

reply to post by StealthyKat

Thats what I thought as well. The image of some lone operator (not owner, not engineer, not even management) having the understanding and fortitude, to go into the mouth of the dragon not knowing; will I be washed away in another Tsunami? Will I be crushed by debris from another trembler? Or will the reactor explode , or slow cook my flesh only to later die in agony?

I can hear the conversation:
"We have to restore cooling."
"How? Powers out!"
"Then we have to vent. Somebody has to go over there, go inside that building, climb on the reactor and manually activate the relief valve or it's going to blow!"
The room erupts and amid cries of "You're crazy" and "Not me", some lowly worker raises his hand and says, "I'll go."
He knows the system, the layout and has been there so many times he can find his way in the dar... well you get it. Whomever you are sir, the world thanks you for trying to save it from the bottom of it's heart.

reply to post by intrptr


Heros, all of them. The shame is, that we don't know who they are...do we? Have you seen any photos of them? If so, please let me know. They should be recognised as national heros IMO.

Originally posted by StealthyKat
reply to post by intrptr

 

Heros, all of them. The shame is, that we don't know who they are...do we? Have you seen any photos of them? If so, please let me know. They should be recognised as national heros IMO.

Hey Stealthykat... sorry for the delay. I did a quick check and found this. At the end of this one there are some guys up on power lines trying to restore power to pumps early on. Also the reason why we don't or can't see the selfless lowly worker who took the brunt is evident in the beginning. Remember the blue tarp dudes? Japanese are very carefully guarding their identities for some strange reason. Thats the way they operate over there.

They know who they are.
Same kind of bravery was found at Chernobyl.
If you search YouTube for "Fukushima workers" a whole plethora comes up.
Taking all Japanese NHK Tepco reports with a grain of Plutonium of course.

reply to post by intrptr


That's just incredible. Thanks for the video.....I'm speechless.

“True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.” - Alfred North Whitehead quotes (British Mathematician and Philosopher, 1861-1947)

That person is probably by now dead, if the radiation was hot enough to melt shoes - this person knew he/she would pay the ultimate price (life) so that others may live.

You can't get a more heroic person then that.

This is a old post and Fukushima and BP and a few other ecological impacting "accidents" still continue unabated.

Accident, human stupidity, quirk of nature's force or something more?

As I write this we now have a gas cloud over the North Sea.....................sea by sea, our land, our air, something I suspect is going on and possibly not all by "accident".



Movie clip above is from Epoch clicking on the lower right hand of film will take you to it's source.

Also watch, the original (not sequel) of "The Arrival" with Charlie Sheen.

reply to post by ofhumandescent

Hi Human. Thanks for stopping by. I monitor your idea that the earth may be terraformed.

Also watch, the original (not sequel) of "The Arrival" with Charlie Sheen.

I have. Good film. The idea is interesting but hard to carry out in reality. The earth has a counter balance to any slow change to the biosphere. Look at it this way.

Say the earths climate heats up appreciably by some factor. This melts more ice contained in places like Green Land and Antarctica, right? So the water level rises all around the planet. That means there is more surface area of water for the sun to evaporate which makes more clouds that in turn block the suns rays from the earth which results in cooling down. Kind of a check and balance to the overall temp of the entire planet.

That is a slow change. A quick change of say an asteroid impact is something entirely different. That would be a terra forming sight to see (from space).