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Workers At Japanese Nuclear Plant Expect To Die, Mother Of One Says

Metropolitan Police Department personnel searched for victims in the debris of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan, earlier today (April 1, 2011).
Lee Jin-man
/
AP
Metropolitan Police Department personnel searched for victims in the debris of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan, earlier today (April 1, 2011).

As the crisis in Japan continues, there's this sobering report from FoxNews.com:

"Workers at the disaster-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan say they expect to die from radiation sickness as a result of their efforts to bring the reactors under control, the mother of one of the men tells Fox News. ...

" 'He told me they have accepted they will all probably die from radiation sickness in the short term or cancer in the long-term.' "

About 700 workers have been working in shifts at the plant as they try to cool nuclear reactors that were crippled by the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan's northeast coast on March 11.

Meanwhile, here are some of the other latest developments and headlines:

-- "Radioactive Substances In Underground Water": "Tokyo Electric Power Company says it has detected radioactive substances in underground water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. TEPCO, operator of the plant, has been checking below-ground water on the advice of the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan." ( NHK)

-- Utility Ordered To Review Radiation Figures: "Japan's nuclear safety agency ordered a review Friday of the latest radiation measurements taken in air, seawater and groundwater samples around a leaking, tsunami-disabled nuclear plant, saying they seemed suspiciously high." ( The Associated Press)

-- "Three-Day Intensive Search For Missing Tsunami Victims Begins":"The Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military began on Friday a three-day intensive search for those still missing three weeks after a quake-triggered massive tsunami wiped out a swath of coastal cities and towns in Japan's northeast." ( Kyodo News)

-- "For Fukushima's Farmers, Growing Uncertainty." ( Morning Edition)

-- Official Death Toll Nears 12,000: "The tsunami and the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that triggered it has claimed at least 11,578 lives in 12 prefectures and has left at least 16,451 people officially unaccounted for as of Friday morning." ( Kyodo News)

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