Dangerous work: officials wearing protective clothing and respirators head towards the Fukushima nuclear plant
Desperate efforts: Steam billows from the overheating reactor number three at the Fukushima nuclear plant today
Stricken: The latest satellite image of the Fukushima plant shows damage to the Units 1, 3, and 4 reactor buildings, with steam venting from the Unit 2 reactor and Unit 3 reactor buildings - while the diagram on the right shows a breakdown of the site's layout and a time line of events
Heartbreaking message: This woman told interviewers her husband was working at the plant in the full knowledge he was being radiated. Her husband sent her an email that said: 'Continue to live well. I cannot be home for some time.'
The radiation levels at the plant
entrance are at a level which will either kill the workers soon or cause
them appalling illnesses in the years to come.
Experts have said that the airtight suits they are wearing would do little to stop the contamination.
The group remained behind after 700 of their colleagues fled when radiation levels became too dangerous.
Their identities have not been
revealed, but experts said they are likely to be working class
front-line technicians and firemen who know the plant the best.
It is thought that mostly older men
have volunteered because they have already had children – younger
workers might be rendered infertile by the high radiation doses.
Whilst the men are called the
Fukushima Fifty, the group is thought to actually be 200-strong. They
are doing four shifts in rotation, working on restarting the cooling
systems.
Their heart-rending messages home
were made public yesterday by Japanese national television, which has
interviewed their relatives.
One relative said: 'My father is still working at the plant. He says he's accepted his fate, much like a death sentence.'
A woman said her husband who was at the plant had continued to work while fully aware he was being bombarded with radiation.
Another said that her 59-year-old
father had volunteered for Fukushima duty, adding: 'I heard that he
volunteered even though he will be retiring in just half a year and my
eyes are filling up with tears.
'At home, he doesn't seem like
someone who could handle big jobs. But today, I was really proud of him.
I pray for his safe return.'
Preparing to go in: Fire engines and workers in white suits wait in a carpark near Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant today
Devastated: The badly damaged reactor four at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Green machinery can be seen through the ruined wall
Inferno: An oil refinery in Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture, as it burned on the day of the earthquake
Searching: At an evacuation center in Ishinomaki, Toshihito Aisawa, 9, holds up signs with the names of his family and cousins, who have been missing since March 11
U.S AIR PASSENGERS FROM JAPAN TEST POSITIVE FOR RADIATION
Radiation from Japan has been detected in Chicago and Dallas as U.S. citizens fleeing a potential nuclear disaster arrive back on American soil.
Travellers landing at Chicago's O'Hare airport and Dallas Fort-Worth airport are said to have tested positive for minute amounts of radiation.
A Chicago Aviation Department spokesman refused to confirm that radiation has been found at the airport, saying only that Customs and Border Protection are doing additional screenings.
But CBS reported that radiation has also been detected in the air filtering system of at least one flight, and on the luggage of passengers arriving back from Japan.
With terrified passengers packing Tokyo airport after scores governments, including the U.S., advised their citizens to flee, the danger of more radiation arriving on flights from Japan is set to increase.
In the UK, BAA, which runs Heathrow and Stanstead, said that as far as it is aware there was no danger to any aircraft landing at their airports.
A spokesman for BAA said: 'We are closely monitoring the situation and will act immediately on any government advice, but we must stress there is no evidence presently to suggest there's any threat to aircraft. We only serve Narrita and Haneda airports, both near to Tokyo.'
Another girl whose father worked at the Fukushima reactor said: 'I have never seen my mother cry so hard'.
She wrote on Twitter: 'People at the plant are struggling, sacrificing themselves to protect you.
'Please, Dad, come back alive.'
Of those who have stayed behind, five
are known to have died already and two are missing. At least 21 others
have been injured. A female worker who claimed to have been on duty in
the Fukushima No 2 reactor when the tsunami struck posted her account of
what happened on the internet.
Michiko Otsuki, who has since sought
safety, wrote on a Japanese social networking website translated by The
Straits Times: 'In the midst of the tsunami alarm at 3am in the night
when we couldn't even see where we were going, we carried on working to
restore the reactors from where we were, right by the sea, with the
realisation that this could be certain death.
'The machine that cools the reactor
is just by the ocean, and it was wrecked by the tsunami. Everyone
worked desperately to try to restore it.
'Fighting fatigue and empty stomachs, we dragged ourselves back to work.
'There are many who haven't got in touch with their family members, but are facing the present situation and working hard.'
Dr Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist, told the U.S. TV network ABC that the situation had worsened in the last day.
'We're talking about workers coming into the reactor perhaps as a suicide mission and we may have to abandon ship,' he said.
Michael Friedlander, who has worked
in crisis management at similar American nuclear plants, added the
workers were probably eating military-style rations and drinking cold
water to survive.
'It's cold, it's dark, and you're
doing that while trying to make sure you're not contaminating yourself
while you're eating,' he said.
'I can tell you with 100 per cent
certainty they are absolutely committed to doing whatever is humanly
necessary to make these plants in safe condition, even at the risk of
their own lives.'
Britons flee as desperate efforts to cut radiation fail
By David Derbyshire
Japan was running out of options to halt its nuclear crisis last night after attempts to waterbomb its overheating reactors by helicopter failed.
In a sign of growing desperation, the army was called in to cool the atomic waste stored at the Fukushima power plant with high pressure water cannon.
But radiation levels rose even higher.
