"Vital" workers condemned to stay

April 28, 2012-

Workers with high radiation levels to stay at N-plant

Jiji Press

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120427006236.htm

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday that a total of 16 employees whose cumulative radiation doses have exceeded 100 millisieverts, a government-set limit, will continue to work at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

According to TEPCO, the 16 are engaged in equipment operation and radiation control and have advanced expertise and extensive experience at the nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami last year.

Following the accident at the plant, the health ministry raised the cumulative dose limit to 250 millisieverts for workers there. But this measure will expire at the end of April. The cumulative limits revert back to 50 millisieverts per year and 100 millisieverts over a five-year period.

As the 16 people are vital for containing the plant's nuclear crisis, the company will keep them at workand take steps to reduce radiation levels at the quake-proof building used for its disaster response team, it said.

With TEPCO taking such measures as covering some ceilings and floors with lead in the quake-resistant building, radiation levels there have fallen to 0.7 microsievert per hour from 1.6 microsieverts, according to the utility.