nuclear-news

Misleading information masks true level of radiation received by Fukushima workers

63 workers exposed to higher radiation than logged in their records,
March 02, 2013, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN  by Toshio Tada and Jun Sato
Dozens of workers at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant
were exposed to radiation levels higher than those registered in their
personal records, according to a health ministry investigation.

Misleading information was kept in at least 63 cases….. In the
largest discrepancy, one worker’s monthly exposure was revised from
4.4 millisieverts to 6.35 millisieverts. Those whose records are not
updated could end up working at a nuclear facility beyond the legal
annual limits for radiation exposure.

The number of workers with inaccurate personal radiation exposure
records is expected to increase because the ministry has yet to start
an investigation into the eight-month period immediately following the
disaster that unfolded in March 2011.

In those months, radiation levels were much higher than the period
investigated and TEPCO and its contractors did not rigorously monitor
radiation levels to which the workers were exposed……
Earlier, TEPCO was found to have failed to send the association data
for a total of 21,000 workers employed over a period from the nuclear
accident through fiscal 2011.

The ministry’s recent investigation followed reports by The Asahi
Shimbun last summer that subcontractors manipulated readings of
dosimeters for their workers by covering them with lead shields.

The ministry announced in October that it confirmed 19 instances of
irregularities, including non-use of dosimeters.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201303020048

March 4, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | employment, Fukushima 2013, Japan