First Photos of Fukushima 50

by NowPublic Staff | March 23, 2011 at 12:21 pm

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Fukushima 50 Photographed: 5 Workers May Have Already Died

We're seeing the first photos of the Fukushima 50, the TEPCO workers who volunteered to work at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant, even as it continues to leak radiation. The photos were taken by Associated Press photographers, who entered the dangerous interior of Fukushima Daiichi to get these images.

We are getting our first look at the working conditions at Fukushima Daiichi, and it looks grim: dark, cramped and complex. Fukushima 50 Photos, via the Daily Mail.

There are actually around 200 workers, who venture into Fukushima Daiichi in shifts. According to the Daily Mail, five of these brave workers may have already died. The rest of the Fukushima 50 know that they will eventually die from radiation poisoning.

While electricity has been partially restored, Fukushima Daiichi continues to leak radiaiton, and the health and economic effects of the disaster cannot yet be calculated.

Despite sweltering heat from the damaged reactors, they must work in protective bodysuits to protect their skin from the poisonous radioactive particles that fill the air around them.

But as more radiation seeps into the atmosphere minute by minute, they know this job will be their last.