Retired Engineers Tackle Nuclear Crisis

A group of retired Japanese nuclear and civil engineers are hoping to report back for duty for one last mission to stabilize the radiation-leaking Fukushima atomic power plant. (Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images)

A group of retired engineers and professionals, in their 60s, are volunteering to work on addressing the nuclear crisis facing Japan, reports BBC.

They say that the burden of addressing the nuclear crisis should rest on the shoulders of the older workers, not the younger ones.

Yasutera Yamada, 72, a retired engineer, has called upon fellow retired professionals to step up to the plate and help tackle Japan’s nuclear crisis.

“I am 72, and on average, I probably have 13 to 15 years left to live,” he said in an interview with BBC. “Even if I were exposed to radiation, cancer could take 20 or 30 years, or longer, to develop. Therefore we older folks have less of a chance of getting cancer.”

Yamada has been getting in touch with his old contacts, sending out e-mails and Twitter messages to recruit them, BBC reported.

The response has been good, he said.

“Now, I have almost 200 people who want to join the work at the site. If you want a crane operator, ok, I can offer you that. … If you want to have a singer at the site, for entertainment … and we need a cook at the site, we need to eat. Ok, I have two already,” said Yamada.