To Chang Chian-yi (張健益), an employee at the Guosheng nuclear power plant in Wanli (萬里), New Taipei City (新北市), for three decades, the crisis at Japan’s -Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant aroused complex feelings.
A decade ago, on March 20, 1993, Chang was a foreman at the plant in charge of storing control rods after their removal from the reactor. When the ninth control rod was being removed, it was raised too quickly and came close to the surface of the coolant, causing a spike in radiation.
Although Chang knew that something had gone wrong, he finished his job before going outside for a rest.
At the time, all personnel at the plant wore radiation dose badges and Chang’s badge showed 29,000 mrem (roughly equivalent to 290 microsieverts, the current unit for measuring radiation), far above the annual limit of 5,000 mrem, he said.
Sent to Taipei Veterans General Hospital for four days of blood tests, doctors released Chang after establishing that his leukocyte and blood platelet functions were normal, though he was told to return every three days for blood tests.
A year after exposure to -radiation, doctors told him he should come back to the hospital for blood tests every year.
“So far, there haven’t been any aftereffects,” Chang said.
Atomic Energy Council General Planning Section Deputy Director Wang Wei-chih (王唯志) said that in the nuclear sector, the most frequently asked question was whether fertility rates suffered.
Surveys taken among employees at the Jinshan nuclear power plant in Shihmen District (石門), also in New Taipei City, showed that while there was no indication that fertility rates were down, more baby boys tended to be born to those employees than average, Wang said.
Diagnosed with cancer eight years ago, Wang said doctors told him his frequent visits to nuclear power plants were a possible cause.
If it came down to a moment of crisis, Wang said he hoped he could summon enough courage to “do what the personnel at the Tokyo Electric Power Co are doing,” adding that he hoped his family would understand that doing so did not mean he did not love them.
“It’s placing your life on the line. Hopefully nothing like this will ever happen in Taiwan, but if it does, I wouldn’t blame those people who couldn’t handle it,” Wang said.
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