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Headline is false (possibly mistranslation).

According to http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/latest-updates-o...:

11:13 P.M. (EST) Core Group of Workers Remain at Plant The Times’s Hiroko Tabuchi reports that a small group of workers remains at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, contrary to what an English translation of the chief cabinet secretary’s remarks had implied.

Edit: http://live.reuters.com/Event/Japan_earthquake2 is also reporting that workers are (back) in. Also NHK is clearly reporting that the chief secretary misspoke radiation levels and used milli instead of micro.

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I waited a while to get a feel from multiple media outlets before replying to you, and CNN aired the video of the remarks in question in that time...based upon waiting, it would appear that the headline is in fact true. BBC, AP, and CNN have all reported that operations have been suspended due to high radiation levels, as high as 1,000 mSv at their peak, which is enough to justify complete evacuation as I understand it. The last report of radiation levels was 600-800 mSv.

Edano's translator on the tape said (loosely, I typed quickly): "All the workers there have suspended operations there. Even the minimum ones. So we have evacuated them in a safe area."

The even the minimum ones is interesting. Edano himself promised more details on the suspension later, which is worrying in itself.

Edit: Video of Edano's remarks here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12755739

That was 600-800 uSv.

Watch the video. He specifically said milli-Sievert.

And then he was corrected by the dude in the white lab coat.

I however heard micro on my translation and was a little bit confused during the correcting.

It might be where they're measuring. He went on to indicate that at the gate, the measurements had just reached the milli- level; perhaps the exorbitantly high figure is very close to the core?

I think the figures that were thrown around in that press conference--either by Edano or 'white lab jacket guy'--varied by location however the translator had my head spinning and I couldn't deduce what's what.

I'm pretty certain that anytime "600 to 800" was mentioned, it was supposed to be in uSv, and that those measurements were taken at the plant's gates.

Fair enough. Will be good to see a correction, then (like that'll happen) -- most of the big names in the media have already run with milli-.

Takeaway for me from this: units for radiation exposure suck, and don't communicate well to the lay.

I'm willing to bet they will repeat that news conference on the hour (one minute) on NHK:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv

EDIT: They indeed did so, but shortened and dumbed it down with only 2 figures being provided by 'WLJG'--2.3 and 6.4 mSv 'near the plant', with the latter being the peak at the time of 'leak.'

There's no point endlessly debating the numbers since Tepco releases them in full:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/tepconews/index-j.html

Here are the latest ones for Fukushima-daiichi:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/cc/press/betu11_j/images/110316c.pdf

The columns are, in order, date, time, location (often 正門, the main gate), gamma rays, neutron radiation, wind direction, wind speed. The latest peak seems to be 10.85 mSv/hr at 12:30PM on the 16th, down to 2.5 mSv/hr less than one hour later.

It would be awfully nice if people included units of time when talking about sieverts, because it is a cumulative measurement. If you don't mention how long it takes to absorb a reported dosage people are going to get unnecessarily confused.

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