Chernobyl Jumper Expresses Concern for Japanese Nuclear Plant Workers

Sergei Belyakov, a scientist and former jumper in Chernobyl expresses his concern over the health status of Japanese workers or jumpers who are risking their lives to contain the core meltdowns at the nuclear power plant in Japan caused by March 11 earthquake-cum-tsunami.

"I really feel sorry for the situation in Fukushima, honestly," The Japan Times quoted the 55-year-old former "jumper" in Chernobyl, as saying.

'Jumpers' were the workers who risked their lives by "jumping" into highly contaminated zones at the damaged nuclear station in Chernobyl to deal with the crisis there.

Recalling his 40 days in Chernobyl in 1986, Belyakov, a U.S. citizen and scientist who now works for Albany Molecular Research Inc. in Singapore, said that he feels the pain of the Fukushima workers because he had gone through the same thing.

"The reason why I am so affected (by the Fukushima disaster) is that I feel for these guys who work at the station as jumpers because every day goes by they will have much more effort to clean it up and more health and lives will be lost," he added.

Belyakov said he had been monitoring the developments in the Fukushima plant ever since it was hit by the March 11 tsunami, and added that Japanese government should have sought the help of experienced workers to deal with the situation there.

"To me it is quite unexplainable that Tokyo Electric Power Co. and, obviously, the Japanese government do not tap into the pool of knowledge of people who went through Chernobyl and can lend them a hand with a lot of help," he said.

Source: ANI