Japanese Fire Fighters tell families "We won't be coming home"

rbstewart7263

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Guys I tried to look this up..aaaannnnd all ive found is that some of the firefighters are returning home and the only source of this "kamikaze firefighter story" is.. here.
 

Laughing Man

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Their are a lot of people in this thread who need to find out just how a reactor works and just how dangerous they really are. Once they have done that they will find out that the 'kamikaze, self sacrifice' bravery that these fire fighters have been imbued with is mostly over media generated nonsense. They are brave but they are not that brave. These men were brave

Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov, and Boris Baranov

I would suggest you look up the reason why they are brave.
 

godofallu

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mjc0961 said:
godofallu said:
As I understand it spraying the thing with water is only a very temporary solution. They need to actually fix the thing before it blows, but from what I have been hearing that may not be possible.

If they were going into the plant to fix the problem that would be worth dying for, but spraying the thing with water isn't worth their lives. This has been going on for a while now, how many firefighters need to get hit with radiation before they let the thing blow or fix the problem? Dying in order to save people is noble, throwing your life away in order to buy another few days.. meh. At this point anyone who wanted to get out of the blast radious could have done so. It's tragic to think that they may have to let it blow, but let's be honest, Japan can handle a nuke going off inside it's borders.
Oh, is that all they need? To fix it? Well shit, I've had this "Fix nuclear reactor" button sitting on my desk, I guess I should have pushed it for them earlier. My bad.

Seriously, what is wrong with you? If they let it melt down, a lot more people will die than just the very brave people willing to sacrifice themselves to keep it cool. And they are doing this so the people working very hard to try and fix it right now can have enough time to get it fixed so it doesn't melt down and kill a lot more people. It's not some simple and quick fix you seem to be thinking they should have done already, otherwise they would have it fixed by now and nobody would have to sacrifice themselves like that.

You should seriously think before you go spouting off utter nonsense like that in the future.
Or maybe you should be a little bit more knowledgeable about whats going on, or what I said, before going flying off the handle. Most of the nuclear experts don't even think it's possible to fix the plant. I don't think there is a quick fix, or that a fix is even possible. If there was a decent chance of fixing the plant what they are doing makes sense, if there isn't then not really.
 

godofallu

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Teddy Roosevelt said:
godofallu said:
As I understand it spraying the thing with water is only a very temporary solution. They need to actually fix the thing before it blows, but from what I have been hearing that may not be possible.

If they were going into the plant to fix the problem that would be worth dying for, but spraying the thing with water isn't worth their lives. This has been going on for a while now, how many firefighters need to get hit with radiation before they let the thing blow or fix the problem? Dying in order to save people is noble, throwing your life away in order to buy another few days.. meh. At this point anyone who wanted to get out of the blast radious could have done so. It's tragic to think that they may have to let it blow, but let's be honest, Japan can handle a nuke going off inside it's borders.
There is far too much wrong with what you just said.

First of all, how dare you sat something so disrespectful about what these men are prepared to do? There is no magic fix to this problem, and it is idiotic to assume that they are ONLY spraying water on the reactor. There is work being done to stop a meltdown and get the cooling systems online, but that cannot happen before a meltdown happens if there is no one to keep the reactor cool.

I am shocked to see someone suggest that these men so bravely sacrificing their lives to hold off a disaster are throwing away their lives uselessly. That is simply false, and, furthermore, you refer to the idea of a nuclear blast in Japan as if it were a joke.

Even so, I close with a nitpicking comment:

Reactor meltdowns are not nuclear explosions. Meltdowns are far too slow to induce a full-scale blast like an actual atomic warhead.
My point was that, if all they are doing is delaying the inevitable, then they are throwing away their lives for no reason. If there is a decent chance they can fix this, then I see a point in the sacrifice. From what the media was suggesting though, the experts seemed to be saying the meltdown was inevitable.

A nuclear blast in Japan isn't a joke, but human sacrifice isn't either. You seem to think that by choosing to take the radiation they are automatically going to save the plant. Whereas my point was that they likely will not, and are killing themselves for no reason.

I hope they save the plant, I really do.
 

Hero in a half shell

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godofallu said:
My point was that, if all they are doing is delaying the inevitable, then they are throwing away their lives for no reason. If there is a decent chance they can fix this, then I see a point in the sacrifice. From what the media was suggesting though, the experts seemed to be saying the meltdown was inevitable.

A nuclear blast in Japan isn't a joke, but human sacrifice isn't either. You seem to think that by choosing to take the radiation they are automatically going to save the plant. Whereas my point was that they likely will not, and are killing themselves for no reason.

I hope they save the plant, I really do.
OK, I am getting more and more frustrated at this, The firemen are in no danger, nor have they ever been exposed to dangeous levels of radiation. They came, set up an unmanned fire hose to spray water into the reactor, and left again. THEY AREN'T EVEN IN THE PLANT ANY MORE! There was a threat to the firefighters when they went, but it was a very small one. Don't get me wrong, they are heroes for going to plant to help, but it was never a suicide mission, the plant was never unsalvagable, and the power has been restored to most of the plant, with arrangements being made to turn the coolant back on. Solving the problem entirely.

I don't blame you, and I'm not trying to mock anyone on this thread, I know that the media have had a witchhunt extravaganza with this, and it is virtually impossible to get reliable information (I am struggling to find any reliable news now that the BBC have stopped their live feeds) The plant is all but fixed, and no one was seriously harmed in the process.
 

awesomeClaw

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My heart is with them. If there truly is no other way, then those men´s families deserve some kind of compensation. Just something to keep them on their feet.

Sigh. This made me depressed.

"In war, victory, in peace, vigilance, in death, sacrifice."

- Grey warden motto.
 

dfphetteplace

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Ruwrak said:
If any culture on this world has a sense of discipline and selfsacrifice, it's the japanese.
While I don't disagree, this seems to be a quality of firefighters every where.
 

BlackWidower

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If one good thing comes out of this, it's that they will hopefully increase redundancy on the emergency systems at these plants.

Haven't they shipped in new water pumps by now? What is going on? This seems kinda ridiculous.
 

The Afrodactyl

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Laughing Man said:
Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov, and Boris Baranov

I would suggest you look up the reason why they are brave.
Those were the men that did the 3-mile swim to drain the system in Chernobyl weren't they?

And I realise that the news is blowing this way out of proportion (as with most things) but these men are still putting their lives at great risk to save loved ones.
 

Naheal

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To those who die so that others may live:

As a society, we know that there is no such thing as true immortality. We know that, if someone dies, there is no coming back. Today, as you give your lives for your friends, your families, and people that you don't know and will never know, we immortalize your memories and your thoughts in the best way that we can. Though your bodies may die, and your families be without, know that your legacy, the only true immortality that exist within this world, will never be forsworn or destroyed. Know that these people who you give your lives for, families who will keep their husbands, fathers, and brothers, will forever be in your debt, and are unable to ever fully repay such a grave price. I feel that there's an important quote from Dragon Age: Origins that I find appropriate for this:

"Join us, brothers and sisters. Join us in the shadows where we stand vigilant. Join us as we carry the duty that can not be forsworn. And should you perish, know that your sacrifice will not be forgotten. And that one day we shall join you."

Rest well, friends and brothers that I have never known and will never know.
 

Enigmers

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Dec 14, 2008
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Many people are referring to Chernobyl, I think it's worth noting that Chernobyl was a Soviet-built plant and was thus built to probably the shittiest standards you could imagine a nuclear plant have. Japan's nuclear power plants are much, much better built than Chernobyl and so the odds of the country being turned into a series of ghost towns like Pripyat are astronomically low.

DeeWiz said:
That's actually quite reassuring. Given what the media does, it's not unusual for them to blow things out of proportion, especially at a time like this.
 

ToAsTy McBuTTeR

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gigastar said:
Tdc2182 said:
And I accept your future apology for being a pompous asshole obstinantly British.
As if im going to take that one sitting down.

You might have known this already, or neglected the facts at one point during your education on why your country is so great, but pompus assholery originated with the Brits and has been one of our more well defined traits scince the time when we used to own America, along with about 2/5ths of the plannet.

And i can apparently get away with it too, because im an evil sterotype in America.
Time and place guys... seriously... what the hell?

OT: i almost cried.
 

mikeysnakes

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godofallu said:
My point was that, if all they are doing is delaying the inevitable, then they are throwing away their lives for no reason. If there is a decent chance they can fix this, then I see a point in the sacrifice. From what the media was suggesting though, the experts seemed to be saying the meltdown was inevitable.

A nuclear blast in Japan isn't a joke, but human sacrifice isn't either. You seem to think that by choosing to take the radiation they are automatically going to save the plant. Whereas my point was that they likely will not, and are killing themselves for no reason.
I think an important point to take is that what they are doing is actually helping, they're trying to cool down the core while they get them set up to outside power sources. Another important point is that all experts have said from the beginning that there will not be a nuclear blast, the type of reactor being used cannot trigger an explosion, the worst case scenarios given are that the nuclear fuel will melt through the core and be exposed to the outside meaning that for about 20km around it, the area will be given a heavy dose of radiation, but it wont travel further than that. Anyone who suggests a meltdown is inevitable is a hack, there's not even an actual rigid definition for a meltdown, so depending on the viewer's idea, a meltdown either has occurred already (since the core is damaged) or will never occur (because it will never explode Chenobyl style).

There IS a fear of a steam explosion, but that in itself is completely different and still wont spread much radiation. There was a steam explosion involving the core on tuesday, but still little more than the immediate area was effected.

Also the firefighters and workers are not going to die, the article is full of shit, when they've absorbed the legal Japanese limit for radiation (250 mSV, under radiation poisoning levels) they are sent home. Also they're using unmanned vehicles to spray. They may be increasing chances for getting certain cancers, but they're not going to be dropping dead from it this year.
 

mikeysnakes

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Wabblefish said:
I agree with you totally, saving radiation from hitting the west coast of the US saves the planet. Also the whole of Escapist is from the US.
The radiation will actually have more of an effect on the world's atmosphere than the US because the US isn't going to get any radiation.