Visiting Fukushima

Martin Fackler describes his experiences:

Workers line up cafeteria-style to take gloves, booties, suits and surgical masks. Masks — boxes and boxes of them — were stored in a nearby room. Workers are also given personal radiation measuring devices, which are checked on their return for total radiation exposure.

Returning workers take off protective clothing in a room covered in pink plastic sheets. After taking off protective clothing, workers are scanned for radiation by a machine called a “gate monitor,” which looked similar to the new body-imaging devices used by airport security.