DAVID LEE MUNDY writes:

I wonder how many of the Fukushima 50, those risking their lives at the breached nuclear facility, are women?

Peter S. writes: 

The apparent answer is none of them.

                                                                   — Comments —

Joyce writes:

From The Daily Record, UK:

“One woman worker, Michiko Otsuki, spoke up for her “silent” colleagues at Tepco. She wrote in a blog: “The staff of Tepco have refused to flee and continue to work even at the peril of their own lives. Please stop attacking us. 

“In the midst of the tsunami alarm (last Friday), at 3 a.m. in the night when we couldn’t even see where we 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 and restore it. 

“Fighting fatigue and empty stomachs, we dragged ourselves back to work.” 

David Mundy and Peter S. seem to have spoken too soon about the lack of women workers at Fukushima willing to sacrifice their lives for the good of others.

Laura writes:

I don’t think women working at nuclear plants would be more likely to flee. I do think they would be less likely to be among those handling many days of grueling stress and highly complex mechanical work to fix a reactor. 

Peter S. writes:

Without wishing to belabor the matter, it doesn’t appear that the quote above implies what the poster intends.  An article from today’s Daily Mail, Courage of the Fukushima Fifty, which I recommend for its portrayal of deliberate courage and resolve in the face of mortally threatening crisis and which includes the excerpted quote above, specifies that the “Fukushima Fifty” – in fact a group of roughly 200 individuals working in shifts of 50 each – appears to be predominantly comprised of older male volunteers.  It is possible that there are women among them – definitive information on their identities appears to be lacking in the press – but that even if there were, it would be unlikely that they would form more than a small minority.  No doubt more information on the identity of these volunteers will be made available in time.  In either case, the gravamen of the point raised by the original poster would hardly be altered.  What is clear is that the female plant worker referenced in the quote above is not one of the “Fukushima Fifty” for the simple reason that, according to the Daily Mail’s article, she has “since sought safety” (another source indicates she was “evacuated from Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) on Monday”); this does not, of course, negate what danger she may have faced or courage she may have shown.

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