Up to 1,000 bodies left untouched near nuclear plant due to radiation fears

It has come to this: we need Engineering to beam a stasis field around the plant.

That 20km zone should have been expanded long ago

thepro: where would they go?

Wherever they have to. My wife's family are from iitate mura and they got the hell out of there based on readings of radiation - there was no information given to them from the government.

Sincerely hope the nuclear plant workers have backups to give them relief otherwise things will not get better with an exhausted staff & help minimize the workers' doses. And radiological control technicians should be monitoring radiation doses & contamination prior to folks going in to work in these elevated radiation fields. JT, it would be helpful if you could provide this information.

"TEPCO, which owns the Fukushima plant, has come under growing criticism for its handling of the nuclear crisis."

Shhhh... don't say that on here... others will accuse you of simply laying blame!

This is a mess... and that is an understatement. It's been more than two weeks, and there are going to be a lot of problems getting these bodies. I don't think they can be decontaminated after that long without further disfigurement. I hope they get proper protective gear when going to get the bodies... not like at the plant. Better yet, send all TEPCO heads out to help, high blood pressure or no.

I assume that TEPCO told the fish in the sea not to swim near the plant. Therefore, no concern about radioactive fish.

Also, what a relief to hear that the cesium in anchovies near Chiba is at a safe level. It must surely have gone directly there, without stopping anywhere else or affecting anything else in between the plants and Chiba waters.

Finally, whenever I hear that TEPCO or "officials" say they need time to study the situation, I am very relieved. I wouldn't want them to just, say, take a geiger counter to a few places and look at the reading on its screen.

We have transcended reality and reached The Twilight Zone.

Food from the area contains radioactive iodine above the legal limit but poses no risk to human health if eaten is small quantities but collecting the body of a loved one will.... : 0

The sacred remains of those poor souls should be gathered and buried as quickly as possible.

So,the result of all this decomposition will be some ripe infectious diseases making their way into the environment.Has there ever been a study of radiation ,decomposing flesh and virulent bacteria in a pot under a gentle heat?

It becomes more and more like something out of a sci fi horror movie as each new day comes.

Better send robots to collect bodies. Well 20 km radious became a zombie town. How about animals ans birds who feed on dead and insects also. Its going larger and larger.

Cholera could become the next big problem if the bodies of the deceased people are not collected fast. Dead human bodies on land and in rivers, lakes and canals grow bacteria very fast. The last thing Japan need now is a water supply contaminated by cholera.

This is quickly turning into a hellish nightmare. Japan does not have the resources, the knowledge, nor the governmental leadership to deal with this. This is one problem that will not go away by bowing and apologizing. They need to use Chile as an example. A whole slew of international experts were called upon to save those trapped miners. Japan needs to do the same. Obama said the U.S. would do all it could to help, time to take them up on that offer.

This will get worse, I read stories from the "sensational" gaijin media and 2 or 3 days latter I read it, see it reported in Japan. The panic slant is moot, the crisis issue is the focus, In an ideal world steps would have been taken long ago that would have minimized the damage. That is the Managements fault and the Gov too. TEPCOS staff are tired and just not up for this...get the French and Americans in- crisis management is not a strong skill here. 100,000 troops but no NBC suits to recover bodies in, even NZ have NBC suits and they are non-nuke.

Well, I think we should put smithinjapan in charge of the situation, he always has such insightful and rational advice on hand.

Has a situation like this ever happened before, I don't think so. Thus, a lot of what is happening is trial by error. Of course it is not going to go smoothly. It seems like everyone involved is doing what needs to be done at the moment. Experts are coming in from other countries, Tepco is finally scrapping the reactors, the government is forcing stronger safety measures, clean up crews are taking precautionary measures to ensure further injuries/death do not occur. Yeas, it was slow to have all this happen, but it is happening. Yes, there is still so much more to be done. No, gloom and doom harping and finger pointing while the situation still exists does absolutely nothing to help, except maybe satisfy your own self righteous ego.

Japan so far was, considering the circumstances, really really lucky. The wind blew almost all of the radioactivity to the ocean. Any other wind direction would have, especially during rainy days, contaminated a huge area of Japan including Tokyo beyond limits imaginable.

Yet some people still are pro nuclear energy or just believe they'd run out of power if there wasn't any. Sometimes I hear comments that Fukushima didn't have that much impact on life. Those people totally ignore the fact that the weather conditions were just totally lucky for the population. That is nuclear energy safety based on sheer luck. Great.

People must realize that nuclear energy basically is a side effect of the cold war times, when those plants were rather needed for building nuclear weapons. Without all that tax financed research, one kilowatt hour of nuclear energy would cost as much as 500 Yen. It is not cheap. And this calculation doesn't even include the dangerous waste "disposal" for thousands of generations after us.

Security is not the most important thing on nuclear power plants, it's the return on investment. A former neighbor worked as a security engineer at a well known nuclear power plant, I myself worked at a company trying to implement third party inspections on nuclear plants, from what I heard and realized myself is, anything not deemed neccessary by law will not be implemented because of costs. And this is not only the case in Japan.

In recent posts here I tried to calm down panic since there actually was no need for in Tokyo, but recently I hear some voices, including a comment on JT here, that go in the direction of, not so bad here, we must learn from this accident and make it safer for future plants. Yeah right. This technology does not forgive any mistakes, not even mentioning the waste. Nowadays there are many other CO2 neutral ways of making enough energy for also industrialized countries. Germany recently decided to pull out of nuclear energy rather fast, in Austria it is even forbidden by law and many other industrialized countries don't use nuclear energy.

I can only urge everybody, do not follow the voices I mentioned above, that nuclear energy is neccessary, that it can be made safer, that Fukushima is not so bad, etc. A simple error like a failing cooling (there is no earthquake or tsunami neccesary for that, at Forsmark it just happened by a shortcut and still nobody knows why coincidentally again by sheer luck, two emergency pumps restarted itself seconds before meltdown) can destroy the lifes of millions and make whole countries uninhabitable.

Governemnts only learn very slowly, especially when money is involved. Just as one example: Turkey plans to build two nuclear plants in Europes/Asias most dangerous earthquake area, one with the help of.... TEPCO. No wonder people keep calm about it, when your governemnet actually tells you, that radioactive tea tastes better and a little radiation is good for you. (1986 - Turgut Ozal, prime minister and Cahit Aral, trade minister).

saitamaliving has valid points, the risks are huge and the same power production CAN be obtained using other means- at the moment power saving has lessed the blackouts, that says a lot by it's own. The recovery of bodies is important they are family and friends and should have the respect they deserve, It's a disaster but people matter dead or alive, it is important.

The level of radioactive iodine in the sea off Japan's disaster-hit Fukushima nuclear plant has soared to its highest reading yet at 4,385 times the legal limit, the plant operator said.

Maybe no-one can get close Just read this on Australian "sensational" news we will see it it a day or two here. My neck is in pain as I daily shake me head...those that say things are OK, the remarks "peace in our time," and "combat operations have ceased," " I did not have sex with her" will not impact on you. Happy happy joy joy for us all

Even worse, I have read reports of evacuees being turned away from hospitals because of radiation fears.

Wow, that is gross.

Illsayit-Austria produced the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, music producers who are still the bench mark, Dictators of world renown, Artists, a society that is in the top ten, scientists who rule their field, If size is so important...well get a grip. It's your issue.

Zombie Time

" LET THE BUYER BEWARE " Fish might be hazardous to your health. Contamination from the plant has been seeping into the sea, posing no threat to human health because fishing and swimming aren’t allowed in the vicinity but sparking concern about the continued leaks, Nishiyama said. - - - Trace amounts of radioactive cesium-137 have been found in anchovies as far afield as Chiba, near Tokyo, but at less than 1% of acceptable levels.

AGAIN let the buyer beware - these are scary times for food. What are the long term effects ? Is there any research to back this up ? Radioactive chemicals in the water doesn't help anybody ?

Will it make me look like. " The Incredible Hulk " gamma rays in the fish ?

cant cremate them, can't bury them naturally, can't store them in a morgue....quickly build a steel and concrete crypt and seal it for eterninty with the nameless souls entombed. Tough for the relatives involved, But tough times call for drastic measures.

so sad. relatives need closure, to say good-bye. bodies need a resting place. hurry up and decide.

They will have to seal these bodies in plumb coffins and burry them far in the ground like the Russian did with the Chernobyl's liquidators.

@Yumimoto

Or just wait the 8 days for the half live to reduce the radiation; excuse the pun. Completely different type of radiation in this case. plus there is DNA available to record.

@whatthe

cesium-137 is being released also.

How radioactive are they?

Out of the different Caesiums being released, with Caesium-137 you just have to wait 30 years for these bodies to be half as radioactive as they are now.

The Japanese government, in doing this, has shown that tens of thousands of their citizens have been exposed to life-endangering radiation. Will they admit this is the question?

I agree with cricky - the French and Americans MUST be paid to come in and take over this mess - heck, pay them $Billions - it is now very obvious the Japanese cannot manage nuclear energy, and the crises that it causes.

Thoughts and prayers for the people.

If the bodies cannot be safely removed, does this mean the 20km zone is uninhabitable in the foreseable future ? AND TEPCO still want to " save " and operate 2 remaining reactors ? What's the score here ? Anyone knows ?

One has to wonder why 70% of the voters in Germany are against a nucuclear power plant only guess after this the percentage will even be higher against such power plants.

When one thinks of it these 50 units in Japan, to 104 in the USA, to five in Canada, with just two in Procvince of Ontario & five in Quebec, but none in Western Canada ESPECIALLY as they are also OLD & we are to assume they are good for life?

If the bodies cannot be safely removed, does this mean the 20km zone is uninhabitable in the foreseable future ? AND TEPCO still want to " save " and operate 2 remaining reactors ? What's the score here ? Anyone knows ?

TEPCO is just trying to stem the hemmoraging of their stock. Even if Reactors 5 & 6 are still functional (and I'm not too sure about that as they had cooling problems as well), their proximity to 1-4 means only an idiot would agree to work there full-time. Realistically, you should consider the entire Daiichi facility as a write-off.

Spray resin on dead bodies, put them inside box and bury them.

put them inside box and bury them................

may be in lead lined stainless steel box to avoid contamination of the soil. Build a memorial over the burial ground so future generation will not forget the incident.