As expected, yesterday’s training was a brain-drainin’ pain. It seems worse every time. Although, to be fair, that’s probably due to advancing age and curmudgeon-ing-ness.
My boss’s boss did give a Fukushima presentation. And I think he solved the “Mystery of the Beta-Burned Bunions“. They had a follow-up medical exam two weeks later, and were totally free of reddening or damage. That alone proves it wasn’t ionizing radiation. I had postulated simple heat rash. Boss thinks they were boron-burned.
If they were splashing around in former reactor water (as seems likely), then they were soaking in heavily borated water. Here’s why you toss boron in reactor water.
So my boss looked up the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for boric acid. Here’s one such. Which warns, of course,
Potential Acute Health Effects: Hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of eye contact (irritant), of ingestion, of inhalation. Slightly hazardous in case of skin contact (permeator).
Nice work by the upstairs man. But it’s still unfair that we rad techs have regular classroom training when no one else does.
World's Only Rational Man 
Your silly boronic trainers must be wrong … it was on TV that the burns were from radiation … and that those workers were committing suicide by going in there.
Obviously there is a cover-up. All nuke plants must be shut down immediately … just ask Germany’s Merkel. And let’s shut down all coal plants too … the one near me is shutting down, thanks to the Obama admin’s regulatory gestapo. Destroying our economy is a small price to pay for keeping the oceans from boiling.
The most interesting thing about this is that media here went all “BETA BURNS! EVERYBODY WILL DIE!!!!!!!!” once the “burns” popped up, but I never heard anything ever again of these guys from official media channels.
The media has been running a planned disorientation and disinformation campaign in this entire case.
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