http://www.inlandnewstoday.com/story.php?s=18279
This isn’t really a crticism – just bringing in some reality. The Japanese authorities have raised the limit to 250 milliSieverts (mSv), or 1/4th of a Sievert. 1 Sievert is where you start getting sick and substantial increased risk of health problems in the future. Get to 3 SV, chances are pretty good you’ll be dead in a few weeks.
I think the people at the plant recognize that some of them are going to die from radiation – in World War 2, there were a number of examples of soldiers who would engage in acts they knew would cause their deaths, but for the greater glory of the Empire. The concept of “self” in Japan is much different than this country.
At Chernobyl, some of this they mitigated by running large numbers of civilians through the plant to do tasks quickly that would keep them within exposure limits – but that was stuff anyone could do like shoveling sand. Being able to rewire the electrical connections on a reactor pump requires a high degree of skill and a lot of time. Throwing random bodies at the problem doesn’t make it go away.
