nuclear-news

Staff at Fukushima Daiichi demoralised and sick

Plummeting morale at Fukushima Daiichi as nuclear cleanup takes its toll Staff on the frontline of operation plagued by health problems and fearful about the future, insiders say Justin McCurry in Fukushima The Guardian, Tuesday 15 October 2013  Dressed in a hazardous materials suit, full-face mask and hard hat,Japan‘s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, left his audience in no doubt: “The future of Japan,” he said, “rests on your shoulders. I am counting on you.”

Abe’s exhortation, delivered during a recent visit to the FukushimaDaiichi nuclear power plant, was only heard by a small group of men inside the plant’s emergency control room. But it was directed at almost 6,000 more: the technicians and engineers, truck drivers and builders who, almost three years after the plant suffered a triple meltdown, remain on the frontline of the world’s most dangerous industrial cleanup.

Yet as the scale of the challenge has become clearer with every new accident and radiation leak, the men working inside the plant are suffering from plummeting morale, health problems and anxiety about the future, according to insiders interviewed by the Guardian……..

Some workers have left because of exhaustion and stress, while others have decided to find work closer to their displaced wives and children.

“They are less motivated and are worried about continuing to work for a firm that might not exist in a decade from now,” Shigemura said………

Workers who have stayed on do so in the knowledge that they risk damaging their health through prolonged exposure to radiation and in accidents of the kind that occurred this week.

Earlier this year, Tepco said that 1,973 workers, including those employed by contractors and subcontractors, had estimated thyroid radiation doses in excess of 100 mSv, the level at which many physicians agree the risk of developing cancer begins to rise…….

While Thomas and other experts have cautioned against reaching hasty conclusions about a possible rise in thyroid cancer among Fukushima Daiichi workers, there is little doubt that their punishing work schedule, performed under the international spotlight, is taking a toll on their health.

“I’m particularly worried about depression and alcoholism,” said Takeshi Tanigawa, a professor in the department of public health at Ehime University in western Japan. “I’ve seen high levels of physical distress and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.”……

For the thousands of non-Tepco employees hired across Japan to perform backbreaking, dangerous work for contractors and subcontractors, the lure of earning decent money in return for working close to lethal levels of radiation has proved an illusion.

Once money for accommodation has been subtracted from their wages, labourers are typically left with a few thousand yen at the end of each day. In some cases, smaller companies withhold danger money, which can amount to more than half of a worker’s daily wage because, they say, they need the extra cash to keep their business afloat.

The poor pay has forced growing numbers of men to quit and take up jobs decontaminating the area around the plant, for which they can earn similar money but with much less exposure to radiation…….

“Tepco workers worry about their health, but also about whether Tepco will take care of them if they fall ill in the future. They put their lives and their health on the line, but in the years to come, they wonder if they will just be discarded.”http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/15/fukushima-nuclear-power-plant-cleanup

October 17, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized