Chapter 12 Skyfire memo
This memorandum was completed 15 years after the furnace core melting disaster occurred in the N7 factory after observation, memory, evidence collection and arrangement by various parties.The original is a handwritten copy, with a length of 8,056 pages and more than 6.4 million words. It details the reasons for the catastrophe. A total of 1,730 reporters, editors and writers participated in the production of this memorandum. , they—like the 35 million residents here—were all victims of the catastrophe; some of them died of radiation infection during the compilation process, and all the rest survived due to the sequelae of the infection .As we read this excerpt of this memorandum, please offer our sincerest condolences to both of these unfortunates.
Located in the northeast corner of the Lanyang Plain, the "N Seventh Plant" set a world record of 789 days of continuous operation of four units in the third year after its completion, and held a grand celebration reception.More than 900 Chinese and foreign guests were invited to the meeting. A high-level person from the Ministry of Energy revealed that the planning of the 13th early warning station of the National Atomic and Chemical Protection Committee is about to start, and the further design work is expected to be completed within two years. expand within. "However," the person said humorously, "the early warning station has nothing to do with the safety of the nuclear power plant, just like a credit bureau investigator can't catch any extramarital affairs of a devoted husband."
April 1, 2020—that is, the sixth day after the above-mentioned reception: at 7:00 in the morning, various radio stations and television networks across the country issued an urgent message stating that "N Seventh Factory" was affected by a minor regional A small-scale accident occurred in the earthquake, and a small amount of radioactive material may have spilled out. The four 10 million-kilowatt generating units of the plant have stopped operating.The Ministry of Energy appeals: Residents in Keelung, Yilan and the greater Taipei area please remain calm to avoid unnecessary commotion or fear; however, people in these areas "please stay indoors as much as possible and do not engage in unnecessary outdoor activities."—— This brief message was repeated 102 times over the next six hours.
At 1:15 p.m., the TV station received a warning from the Information Bureau that the commercials inserted between the above-mentioned accident news had seriously exceeded the second.After quick coordination by relevant parties, the commercial advertisements were completely stopped, and the original vacant time slots were changed to MTV short films such as "Nuclear Protection Common Sense", "Treasure Island Ecological Environment", "Self-Diagnosing Breast Cancer Methods" and "Today Will Be Better".
At 3:00 p.m., major newspapers successively published the "N Seventh Plant Accident" issue. However, the content was similar to the earlier news, and only a few brief guesses and analyzes by unnamed nuclear energy experts were appended.
These speculations and analyzes coincidentally indicate that the truth of the incident in the early morning has not yet become clear, and it is not appropriate to draw any conclusions and claims; it is generally believed that the possibility of melting furnaces is unlikely.However, experts also remind the general public that nearly 40 years ago, in 1981 and 1984, two nuclear power plants in the north of Osaka, Japan and south of Seoul, South Korea had a large amount of radioactive water spills , causing serious pollution, it should not be taken lightly.
At 3:30 p.m., the radio and television industry set up the "Nuclear Power Accident News Comprehensive Express Network". The first program was the latest weather data in the province.Its main content is as follows: "A mobile high pressure of 1036 over North China is slowly developing eastward. A low pressure center with a value of 998 mbar in South China is approximately stagnant in the Guangxi area. The front is formed in the Taiwan Strait and gradually moves northeast. But The province is affected by the return of another high pressure in the western Pacific Ocean. The weather will not turn bad. The weak northeast monsoon will last for three to four days. The whole province will be sunny and cloudy. The temperature will be between 23 and 27 degrees Celsius. "
However, the actual temperature in Keelung and Taipei has risen rapidly from 22 degrees Celsius to 30 degrees Celsius at 7:00 a.m. that day.On the other hand, a dark cloud hangs over the entire northern region.External traffic in Yilan City was completely suspended around 8:00 am.
At 3:45 p.m., the General News Express reported on the Internet that the accident at Plant N7 may be slightly more serious than initially expected.The county-level administrative and public security units in the northern region have set up the "April 1st Task Force" at 8 a.m., which consists of five centers for command, liaison, fire protection, ambulance, and transportation. The spokesperson of the task force emphasized: "This personnel establishment has long been The deployment was completed before the accident happened, and now all staff are on emergency alert and are on standby to deal with the aftermath.”
The team also stated: Before the truth of the accident is known, the normal operation of the three Binhai Highways, the Beiyi Fourth-Line Highway and the four-track North-Circuit Railway will be suspended immediately.The vehicles of all public transportation institutions in the northern region will be dispatched in full and arrive near the location of the N7 factory in order to support an "evacuation task."
At 4:00 p.m., the Ministry of Energy broke the nearly nine-hour silence to further explain the circumstances of the accident as follows:
A reactor of the N7 plant may have suffered "nuclear fuel sheath damage" due to the earlier earthquake. Encapsulating the container, the container will effectively prevent the leakage of radiation substances, and it is believed that the degree of harm will be reduced to the minimum.There is no need for the public to "overreact", and the consensus principle of "no speculation, no panic, no interference, and no retreat" is the principle of response.
When the reporter asked the Ministry of Energy "whether there is a possibility of a similar event like the Zenoburg incident in Soviet Russia", the answer was: the design and manufacture of the N7 plant is the Eastern Company of the United States, and the reactor adopts pressurized water cooling system, completely different from Chanoburg's graphite light water cooling system; the same catastrophe could not have occurred.As for the "evacuation mission" that the "April 1st Task Force" is currently conducting, it is a "random safety exercise" conducted to coordinate with the accidental damage to the N7 plant, with the purpose of understanding and improving "the resilience of personnel involved in nuclear protection and the general public." .
At 4:30, the General Administration of Waterworks suddenly issued an emergency message, calling on the people in the areas north of Tao, Zhu, and Miao to start storing water immediately.In the later news, this water storage area was expanded to Jia and Nan counties. The report did not explain the reason for this appeal.And the actual water storage situation is not ideal because the water supply is not enough.
At 6:00 p.m. on April 1st, the news network first broadcast the disaster report of the power plant accident.A 15-minute scene was shown on the TV screen——hundreds of injured patients appeared one after another in provincial, county, municipal hospitals and miners’ hospitals in Keelung City, most of them arrived at the emergency department within a few minutes He was closely covered by the medical staff, and then moved out of the diagnosis and treatment site.Reporters in charge of interviews in the local declared: These injuries apparently suffered very serious burns.The cleaning robot of the hospital is working together not far behind the reporter to dismantle the chairs in the waiting room and the board walls used for several compartments to free up a larger space and passage for the influx of injured patients.
Twelve hours after the accident, the Minister of Energy and the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission issued a joint statement, acknowledging for the first time that an unforeseen and serious catastrophe had indeed occurred in the N7 plant.The statement has five key points:
1. A cooling system failure accident occurred in a reactor of No. 7 plant, and a small part of the furnace core was melted down;
2. The accident was caused by a sudden regional earthquake without human factors, and it was absolutely different from the chemical explosion that occurred in the Soviet Union's Zhenobao Power Plant 34 years ago, so the degree of the disaster should be relatively minor;
3. The accidented reactor has automatically turned on the "Emergency Core Cooling System" (ECCS), pouring 220,000 gallons of cold water to reduce the combustion potential of the furnace core;
4. The area within 20 kilometers of Factory N7 is a "restricted area", within 50 kilometers is a "disaster area", within 100 kilometers is a "warning area", and outside the "warning area" is a "rescue area".The results of the radiation doses detected in each district will be announced within the shortest possible period;
5. Details of the accident have been reported to the higher authorities, and the Ministry of Energy will do its best to carry out disaster relief work.
Immediately afterwards—at 7:10 sharp, the highest authority issued the order of "National Disaster Relief Mobilization".According to a reliable source: Shefong has also instructed relevant units to promptly request necessary and appropriate support from foreign countries and international organizations that may provide assistance.In the general mobilization order, it is stated that domestic non-disaster relief organizations and individuals temporarily suspend all activities, and wait for contingency instructions issued by the highest authority at any time.On the other hand, the Chief of Staff not only ordered the entire army to be on high alert to prevent all kinds of possible incidents at home and abroad, but also reiterated that all units in the security zone would be dispatched by the "April 1 Task Force" to rescue the catastrophe (according to: from From now on, all media records will be renamed 'accident' to 'catastrophe').
At 7:30, the "April 1st Task Force" revealed to the press in a temporary headquarters outside the disaster area that the melting degree of the reactor core may have risen rapidly, while the situation in the N7 plant was "disgusting." Dare to imagine".Judging by the intensity of the radiation dust, it is impossible for there to be any survivors in the factory building.The ambulance and transportation center of the task force made a decision at 07:05: to abandon those who were within a radius of five kilometers from the center of the restricted area. "We really have to," said the person who did not want to be named sadly. "There are already two solar-powered transportation ships that have been driven in and have never come out again!" He added: restricted areas, disaster areas and warning areas The scope of the project may have to be redrawn because "everything is expanding rapidly".
The news that surprised the people all over the country was revealed 25 minutes later-the director of the fire center of the special task force told the TV reporter: "Our fire-fighting equipment is insufficient-we have a perfect establishment and sufficient personnel, but the equipment is not enough Now there are almost no personnel left.”—— According to reports, nearly twenty firefighters were exposed to radiation dust two million times more than the safe dose in the area around the power plant, and died immediately.
At 9:45 p.m., the Ministry of Energy and the original committee once again published a joint talk on the news network, arguing that the three operating units of the special task force, including the firefighting, ambulance, and transportation centers, "need to be discussed." "Whether it's an accident or a catastrophe, we all have established coping principles and measures." The spokesperson of the Ministry of Energy said, "We usually hold sand table games for safety protection every year, and the results are quite good. The situation should not be so bad. It's out of control..."
The conversation was interrupted in the middle, and several important news transmitted by international communication satellites were interrupted: first, the governments of the United States and Japan have responded immediately and are willing to provide "technical and humanitarian" assistance to our country; second, Southeast Asian countries They respectively expressed their strong concern about the disaster of the N7 plant, and hoped that my country could immediately provide a "minimum detailed report" on the status of the plant; thirdly, the leaders of European countries deeply regretted this matter.Among them, the three artificial satellites of the United Kingdom, France and West Germany actually took clear and complete videos of the disaster site of the N7 factory.One of the four reactor buildings in the video is obviously continuously emitting thick smoke and strong flames. Although the other three reactors have not yet been affected, the temperature of the furnace core that caused the accident has reached over 2980 degrees Celsius.The British authorities suggested that people in the northern part of Taiwan Province should evacuate to the southern part immediately.Experts from West Germany believed that the severity of the disaster had spread to the entire island, and there was no place for evacuation.The above-mentioned experts also speculated that in the next few days or even dozens of days, more than 1,000 people will die of pulmonary fibrosis, nearly 6,000 people will lose their liver and kidney functions, and 13,000 people will die within tens of miles of the disaster site. The bone marrow of thousands of people has been severely damaged, and they have lost their immunity; in addition, three to five thousand unborn fetuses will die, and five to eight thousand fetuses will suffer from genetic diseases or intellectual disabilities. These numbers are increasing with time. Increase.French nuclear health scholars appealed in the news: Immediately suspend the import of frogs and snails to Taiwan.The scholar speculated that the villages and towns near the N7 plant had become ghost towns, and the intensity of the radiation would be over nine hundred roentgens per hour.
This piece of foreign news caused panic among the Chinese people.In the next ten hours, there were 150 robbery cases, 372 theft cases, 203 rape (including attempted) cases in major cities north of Taichung, nearly 500 cases. Car accident, alcoholism, injury and other disputes, as well as three tomb robberies.All counties, cities, and regiment-administered districts have dispatched anti-riot troops, fully armed, to stand by on main roads and open-air gathering places.However, the assembly actions occasionally affected the evacuation actions of some people.
At 1:30 a.m. on April 2, forty-five domestic scholars and experts in nuclear energy engineering, health, medical care, and ecological conservation held an emergency meeting under the convening of the original committee to discuss "how to support the April 1 task force in disaster relief work." Relevant personnel from the Ministry of Energy also attended the meeting.However, no agreement was reached at the meeting, and the obvious differences came from three aspects:
(1) Some scholars believe that the military should first be consulted to send special personnel to go deep into the center of the restricted area to eliminate radioactive substances, so as to avoid the expansion of pollution;
(2) Some scholars believe that the evacuation route and direction should be announced first, and a "complementary relay station" should be established in the low-radiation area to provide drinking water, food and medicine for the evacuated people in forbidden and disaster areas;
(3) The Ministry of Energy insisted on blocking the news first.On the one hand, it avoids the unnecessary panic of the Chinese people, and on the other hand, it also maintains the safety of journalists.The emergency meeting broke up amidst the divergent opinions.
Just after the meeting ended, another piece of news slipped through the net: a location team that set off for the Lanyang area to shoot a film at 5:00 am on April 1 still seemed to be stranded somewhere near the N7 factory and had not returned.This location team includes three of the most prestigious directors of hilarious, kung fu, and horror films, and dozens of popular stars, singers, and talk show stars. The title of the film is "Stop Breathing Forever".
At around 2:00 am on April 2, the highest authority made a statement for the second time.The main content is to emphasize that domestic storage shells are sufficient, and the safety stock of bulk materials can maintain supply and demand stably, and there will be no shortage of staple foods within two months.However, more than one-half of the nearly 600,000 hectares of rice fields in the province may be covered by radioactive materials, and at least the rice crops of that year will suffer serious harvest failure or pollution.
In addition, production and sales cooperation units of vegetables, green fruits, poultry, and pigs, aquaculture products and offshore fish supply organizations all over the province will become direct victims of the disaster at N7 Factory within one to several weeks. Complete disaster prevention and self-rescue preparations must be made in time, and existing facilities and machines should be used as much as possible to properly protect crops from infection.The authorities will instruct the provincial agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery units on further contingency measures within days.
However, around 3:15 a.m., a phenomenon happened in all towns and towns across the province: a large number of frightened, confused, and angry farmers and fishermen flocked to local temples and altars, asking for temple blessings, psychic mediums, magic sticks, and wizards. He presided over various ceremonies to pray for blessings and avoid disasters with shamans, but sporadic conflicts occurred in nearly one-third of the places.
According to reports, at least eleven local journalists who went to various temples to report news were beaten by the people. Obviously, the people were inevitably injured in the disturbance, but no one knows the exact situation.
It's four o'clock.The weather report of the news network pointed out that the Taiwan area is affected by the return flow of high pressure in the western Pacific Ocean. The next two days will be sunny and cloudy, and the northeast wind is very weak. Therefore, the radiation clouds over the catastrophic area will not immediately Going south, the meteorological analyst also claimed: If we say that we can expect any help from the sky at present, it is to let the high pressure center in North China move eastward strongly, or have a strong southwest wind to pass through the border, so that the radiation cloud passes through Lanzhou in the shortest period of time. Yangxi mouth to the sea.However, judging from the current high-altitude air trajectory, it seems that there is no possibility of a miracle.One minute and thirty seconds after the end of the weather report, it rained unexpectedly in the Taipei Basin and the Yilan Mountains, and the measured radiation level in the rainwater pool was as high as 800 lunmu.At 4:30, the first comforting news came after the catastrophe. Nearly a thousand people on the edge of the "forbidden zone" had already entered eighteen well-equipped underground shelters under the escort of technicians. .The contact center of the April 1 Task Force stated that these people will spend at least 45 to 60 days of hard life in the bunker.However—"They will all survive," said the spokesman, "the bunker has sufficient high-unit nutrients and drinking water. But they must use full human power to turn the generator thirty feet underground to obtain sufficient supplies Clean air and light everyone needs."
Subsequently, the news network broadcast a video of a nuclear energy safety exercise three years ago.In the film, each nuclear shelter 30 feet below the ground accommodates 60 people.They were divided into three groups in an orderly manner: one group slept on bunks covered with soft mattresses; one group read, talked, did rhythmic gymnastics or played table tennis under the lamp; The squad took turns working together to turn a huge metal millstone - their only means of survival.It kept turning among the crowd, started the generator, and drove the pumps that filter the air. The operators were sweating, but no one stopped.The only reliable force in this place is the most primitive human power.
In the torrential rain, eighteen A-9 attack planes sent by the Air Force patrolled the northern coastline.Inland not far from these fighter planes, a formation of forty-eight helicopters from the Army Light Air Force traveled between a certain base in Taoyuan and the Lanyang Plain. The extent of spillage of radioactive material.
Nearly 10 million people in the northern region spent the 24 hours after the disaster in astonishment, hesitation, and horror, and most of them never took a break.They waited intently in front of the TV, and began to wonder: Could this be their last chance to use electricity in this life?But there is one thing that is probably very common: People began to look at every civilization and progressive product around them very nostalgicly: fully automatic home appliances, personal and home integrated circuit systems, microwave communication equipment, full-featured data analyzers, diversified Safety equipment, disk videos and turntables, super-range high-fidelity audio combinations...even screen-type game consoles, mechanical servants and mechanical pets, and finally people cast strange eyes on each other, and found that his family, relatives and himself have been in the same place. Within twenty-four hours, it began to gradually transform into another kind of creature—or was it a creature? ——and the process of change is so secretive.
I lived in Ping Township, Taoyuan at the time, at least one or two hundred kilometers away from the disaster site. It is reasonable to say that the residents in our "rescue area" are relatively safe, but in fact it seems that is not the case.My wife suffered from chronic nephritis six months after the catastrophe. In our Pingzhen area, there are more than 7,500 patients like her.She was still mild, and it took three years for her to gradually become serious. She began to undergo kidney dialysis, but the machine couldn't turn on, and it took another few months before she died.Now buried under my bathtub, I am fine, but I have red spots all over my body, festering and festering, my head is bald, and all my teeth are missing.But it’s really okay, I go to the village chief’s house on a monthly basis to line up to receive the rations. Now that I’ve eaten nutritious porridge for more than 20 years, I should be content!If I have any wish, um, I want to visit Leofoo Village before I die, and I heard that there is a pair of sparrows raised there; I haven’t seen a bird for many years.The neighbors said that the county government is going to entertain some people over the age of 60 to visit, and I signed up too. If I'm lucky, maybe it will be my turn!
I was eleven years old that year, and I was still in elementary school in Taipei, when the school suddenly closed.My dad said: "We are all going to sink to the bottom of the sea." I was very scared at the time, and my mother wrapped me up in many quilts and hid me in the closet. She gave me water twice a day and a little bread.After a few weeks (maybe months, or just a few days, I don't really remember), it was my dad who fed me.I asked him, "Where's mom?" He said mom went to work to make money, but I asked where to go to work?He just cried.After a while, the food I ate was different. My dad said it was from the "Red Cross Society". It was not delicious, but if I didn't eat it, I would be hungry.I sit in the dark closet every day, thinking about the past, but I often can’t remember it. For a while, I even forgot my own name.Then I often smell a bad smell. I can smell it every time my dad comes to feed me and carry me to the bathroom.I figured it was coming from him, and I wanted to see it, but he said there was no light, no electricity.I said, "You stink." He said, "Yeah." He never spoke to me again.One day I was so hungry that I rushed out of the closet.But my hands and feet were soft, and I accidentally fell to the ground. I climbed to the wall and turned on the light, but the light was off. I finally opened the door and let the light from the corridor shine in. I saw a decomposed corpse of a man on the ground. .I was so scared that I ran out.After wandering around the winding corridor for a long time, suddenly my feet went limp again, and I passed out.Then someone sent me to a relief center, and I realized that my parents had completely disappeared from my life.
The relief center is located in my school, where I learned to ride a bicycle for eight years, and now I finally have a skill. I help the priests of the nearby church carry some lay believers to Fudekeng every day, and my life is still decent.The most troublesome thing is: I often forget the way to and fro, and sometimes I just know how to trample and trample - yo ho yo; but I don't know where I want to trample.
I am a mountain fellow of the Paiwan ethnic group in Taitung, and I am also a new generation born after the disaster.Generally speaking, the young people in our area are relatively lucky. They did not personally experience the catastrophe, and our parents were almost unharmed because they lived in a relatively remote area.It stands to reason: My memories are meaningless to the catastrophe itself.But because of my working relationship, I have been in contact with tens of thousands of lonely and helpless victims of the older generation, which made me feel a lot.
I deeply remember: when I was nine years old—that is, the tenth year after the catastrophe, the government announced that the radiation level in the northern region had dropped significantly, and people in remote areas could enter the "warning area" and "disaster area". When carrying out the "Urban Reconstruction Plan".I went north with the International Refugee Organization to help with the light work of distributing medicines.Older refugees would be surprised to see me; some would even touch my face and hands with expressions of curiosity, excitement, and a bit of sadness.But the children who are about my age are different. They treat me as a monster, often pull my hair, bite my legs, and some even punch and kick me.
At my age, sometimes it is really difficult to distinguish between me and them, who is the real human being?In less than a few years, those children died one by one.Sometimes in one day I would come into contact with seven or eight teenagers who died of leukocytosis, and they always begged me at their weakest and gentlest moments before they died: cut a lock of their hair.Never in their lifetime had they seen a single hair.
I don't want to recall that catastrophe.
We live well in Kaohsiung, and we are not in any disaster area or restricted area. Factory N7 has nothing to do with our family, but who would know?My husband and I are the biggest victims.Our only daughter, who was only fourteen years old, died the day after the catastrophe.Why do you know? --Humph!
A few movie stars seemed to go to Lanyangxi to shoot some kind of ghost movie, but they were all burned to death or poisoned to death-I don't care!But my daughter is so young, what does she know?She said that some kind of female star was her idol, and she didn't want to live anymore when she died, so she jumped off the building while talking.
Those disaster victims are unlucky?Am I not unlucky?They can still receive relief goods. Who will rescue me when my daughter dies?It's been almost fifteen years since the catastrophe happened, and I can't even lay a duck egg, so what else is there to talk about?
My father sacrificed his life in disaster relief.He was the driver of a solar-powered transportation ship at that time. I was only twelve years old at that time and lived in Keelung.I just remember my father telling me before he went out for the last time: the company will send him to participate in an exercise, and he will bring me a bag of Yilan famous duck when he comes back.He never came back, and I never got a duck award again.On the second day after the catastrophe happened, my grandfather took his family in a military vehicle and traveled for a long time to Tainan.My family is all dead now.My grandfather suffered from thyroid cancer, my grandmother suffered from breast cancer, and my three older sisters died in the same hospital bed when an A8 influenza struck because of bone marrow damage caused by strontium 90.And my elder brother and younger brother, they went to the Red Cross to steal medicine one day, but they were shot dead on the spot by a group of international mercenaries.
After going through these things, I gradually feel that there is nothing in the world to be happy, sad, depressed, pity, hopeful or disappointed.I am a nurse now, and I help an Australian doctor give injections and dispense medicines every day. I don't think I am doing any work of saving and helping people. Anyway, that is just my way of life.The doctor said that my ovaries still contain a lot of iodine-131 and cesium-137. I often forget to take the medicine on time because I don't know the meaning of "on time". The time seems to be the same!A patient with sclerosis of the lungs once taught me to chant pain-relieving mantras, but I didn't learn it either. Isn't it strange if people live without pain?
I only remember two sentences I wrote after the catastrophe - "nucleus is like life, it is something we have not yet understood, but we have already tried our best to fight for it." The people of our generation are the best witnesses of these two sentences.
Notes:
Notes: