The website also addresses the possible risks to U.S. nuclear
workers from a similar disaster to the one that befell Japan’s
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. “Nuclear reactors at power plants throughout
the United States include many additional safeguards than those
at the site of the Japan earthquake,” the website states.
Concerns about worker safety intensified following reports
that Tokyo Electric, the company that operates the Fukushima
site, withdrew all but 50 workers because of increasing radiation
levels. The Japanese government eventually raised the country’s
occupational limit for nuclear workers to 250 millisieverts, which
is more than five times the occupational limit in the U.S.
An article published Mar. 15 in The New York Times described
the dangers facing the small crew of workers left behind at the
Fukushima plant. The article, “Last Defense at Troubled Reactors:
50 Japanese Workers” by Keith Bradsher and Hiroko Tabuchi, is
available at www.nytimes.com.
More information related to the Japan earthquake and tsunami
is available at USA.gov, the federal government’s official web
portal.
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