Bodies of 2 Missing Workers Found at Japanese Nuclear Plant

[FourScore]

Bodies of 2 Missing Workers Found at Japanese Nuclear Plant
By KEN BELSON and HIROKO TABUCHI
Published: April 3, 2011

TOKYO — The operator of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station said Sunday that two workers at the plant who had been missing for several days had been confirmed dead.

The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, said the workers were found in the basement of the turbine building connected to the plant’s No. 4 reactor. The company did not say how the workers died. But various news media reports say the men lost blood and went into shock.

“It pains me that these two young workers were trying to protect the power plant while being hit by the earthquake and tsunami,” Tokyo Electric’s chairman, Tsunehisa Katsumata, said in a statement.

The confirmation of the deaths came a day after Japanese safety officials announced that highly radioactive water was leaking directly into the sea from a damaged pit near one of the plant’s crippled reactors. The leak was the latest setback in the increasingly difficult bid to regain control of the plant...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/world/asia/04japan.html

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. So they died long after the earthquake/tsunami. n/t

[FourScore]

3. This article says they died from the tsunami.

TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) said Sunday it found two male workers dead at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, both of whom had been reported missing since the March 11 earthquake.

The discovery marks the first casualities found at the plant since earthquake.

The two bodies were found in the basement of the turbine building of its No. 4 reactor, and one of them was floating in the water, Tepco said, adding the likely cause of death was likely injuries sustained from the tsunami. Their estimated time of death was 4 p.m. on March 11, about one hour after the quake, said Tepco.

After Tepco recovered and decontaminated the bodies on Thursday, they said that both bodies had sustained injuries and blood loss. The two men confirmed dead were 21-year-old Yoshiki Terashima and 24-year-old Kazuhiko Kokubo....

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110403D03JF847.htm

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. ok

[Hawkowl]

2. The bodies will never be recovered

I imagine that the bodies are now radioactive and will never be recoverable. Sad.

[FourScore]

4. Actually, their bodies were recovered and decomtaminated.

They were young - only 21 and 24 years old.