Fukushima 50 expect to die

Japan's Heroic nuclear workers believe they could be dead within weeks

Fukushima 50 expect to die

Japan's Heroic nuclear workers believe they could be dead within weeks

Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko pay their respects and try to console an evacuee at a shelter in Tokyo

The mother of one of the workers said he had accepted that he may die within weeks but if not, radiation would probably claim all of their lives in the longer term.

She said, "My son and his colleagues have discussed it at length and they have committed themselves to die if necessary to save the nation.

"He told me they have accepted they will all probably die from radiation sickness in the short term or cancer in the long term.

They have concluded between themselves that it is inevitable some of them may die within weeks or months. They know it is impossible for them not to have been exposed to lethal doses of radiation."

Around 300 workers known as the Fukushima 50 because of the number working during any one shift have risked suffering from massive radiation poisoning as they struggle to contain the crisis.

Workers at the stricken plant try to bring the situation under control

Relatives are preparing themselves for the worst when the men who have been fighting to reinstate cooling systems in the crippled reactors finally finish their mission.

After effects

A total of 11,500 people have been confirmed dead. Another 16,400 are still missing.

And three weeks after the disaster in one of the most advanced countries in the world, 2,60,000 households still have no running water and 1,70,000 do not have electricity.

Japan's Trade Minister Banri Kaieda also revealed animals living within the area devastated by the tsunami are resorting to eating each other because of a shortage of food.

Untouched corpses
Up to 1,000 bodies of victims of Japan's quake and tsunami remain uncollected in the exclusion zone around a stricken nuclear plant because of radiation fears. The bodies had been "exposed to high levels of radiation after death", a source said.

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