Trained, skilled workers doing the clean-up at Fukushima? Nope!

The TEPCO employees on site when the disaster began were heroes. No doubt about it.

But those folks aren't who are onsite today tackling the daunting clean-up job.

“Out of work? Nowhere to live? Nowhere to go? Nothing to eat?” the online ad reads. “Come to Fukushima.”

That is the text of the advertisement to try and lure workers to help decommission the site.

Source NYT 16 March 2014

According to the article, TEPCO officials are more concerned about restarting the plant at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, than supervising the hiring, or day-to-day operations at Fukushima.

This happened last October:

According to regulatory filings by Tepco, the team received only a 20-minute briefing from their supervisor and were given no diagrams of the system they were to fix and no review of safety procedures — a scenario a former supervisor at the plant called unthinkable. Worse yet, the laborers were not warned that a hose near the one they would be removing was filled with water laced with radioactive cesium.

As the men shambled off in their bulky protective gear, their supervisor, juggling multiple responsibilities, left to check on another crew. They chose the wrong hose, and a torrent of radioactive water began spilling out. Panicked, the workers thrust their gloved hands into the water to try to stop the leak, spraying themselves and two other workers who raced over to help.

Apparantly, most of the hiring is being done by labor brokers, who have little technical or safety expertise, and whom police and activists say have ties to the mob.

I feel bad for the people taking these contract jobs:

According to company records, contract workers at Fukushima Daiichi receive, on average, more than twice the radiation exposure of Tepco employees.

Is there no recourse available to the rest of the world, to force more oversight by the international community? This effects all of us.

When there is any emergency cheap hired labor does the clean-up. How many skilled people trained in radiological clean-up do you think is out there?

According to company records, contract workers at Fukushima Daiichi receive, on average, more than twice the radiation exposure of Tepco employees.

When I worked inside a Nuclear plant I received less radiation than you did being outside. Everything is extremely shielded inside and you get about zero exposure. You get more being outside in the sun than I did working inside the containment dome.

So if somebody gets twice what I did it's still almost nothing.

reply to post by Olivine


Its the same in war isn't it?

Let the FNG do it.

What other recourse is there? Its too late, the problem has grown too big, the solution is as inexpensive as the inexperienced worker.

Edit: whoops, sorry about that double post.

reply to post by mwood


I get what you're saying, but were you working in a situation similar to Fukushima?

The people being contracted for this clean-up work aren't being supplied with proper instruction or supervision.

reply to post by mwood

When I worked inside a Nuclear plant I received less radiation than you did being outside. Everything is extremely shielded inside and you get about zero exposure. You get more being outside in the sun than I did working inside the containment dome.

That was a working reactor though, right? Not a melted corium slag pile.

In another time those people would be cannon fodder or a notch in a Samurai sword it is the way the world is .

i have been in a situation at a plant where our tags went red in day's and then you were supposed to be off site for nine month's
guess what we got new tag's and carried on i was very young and daft then and not 1 of the older guy's are here today

but you live and learn

Just like the "Biorobots" from Chernobyl, human workforce that can "be spared".

Unfortunately someone have to do the job, it's just the way they have to do the job that is wrong.

Here is a short docu. about the workers from Chernobyl.
Part 1

Part 2

Olivine
Apparantly, most of the hiring is being done by labor brokers, who have little technical or safety expertise, and whom police and activists say have ties to the mob.

TEPCO's ties to the mob, the "Yakuza" predate the Fukushima disaster which was one of the interesting things I learned as a result of this disaster:

The Yakuza and the Nuclear Mafia

Even before the meltdown, it was very common for TEPCO to use temporary staffing firms that that would ultimately outsource work to organized crime front companies such as M-Kogyo in Fukuoka Prefecture and Yokohama which is backed by the Kudo-kai (工藤会). Organized crime groups from Kyushu are bringing workers as well. Many of the workers are homeless people, debtors to yakuza loan sharks, or former yakuza who have been expelled from their group.

The Japanese have been trying to kick organized crime out of the nuclear industry, but I don't think they've been very successful at doing that. They did arrest one guy but it's like the tip of an iceberg I think:

Police Arrest Yakuza Labor Broker In “Nuclear Mafia” Crackdown; Investigation Continues

After the arrest of a yakuza boss for his alleged role in supplying workers to TEPCO’s Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Plant, we are learning the details of how Japan’s nuclear industry relied on organized crime.

It's an interesting, and to me, unexpected angle on this whole Fukushima mess.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Thank you for posting this information.

Before reading the article yesterday about the contract hiring, I was under the mistaken impression that everyone working at all nuclear facilities, and especially at Fukushima, would have gobs of training, and lot's of schooling. I was really dumbstruck to learn the true situation.

This effects all of us.

It would be easier to take your message seriously, if it was written in english.

The word "effects" is PLURAL of the word "effect".

So, "This .. many effects ... all of us".

That doesn't make ANY SENSE in english!

If you, by chance, meant to use the word "affects", please note, that it begins with an "a", not with an "e".

If you suffer from 'american typo syndrome', I can give you a quick cheat-sheet..

americantypo.site11.com...

The next time, you will know how to write every word correctly, right? All you have to do is consult the list and you can see the right and the wrong way to spell it. Please do it before attempting to construct a serious message the next time - it will be that much easier to take the message seriously, if it actually makes sense.

Shoujikina

This effects all of us.

It would be easier to take your message seriously, if it was written in english.

The word "effects" is PLURAL of the word "effect".

So, "This .. many effects ... all of us".

That doesn't make ANY SENSE in english!

If you, by chance, meant to use the word "affects", please note, that it begins with an "a", not with an "e".

If you suffer from 'american typo syndrome', I can give you a quick cheat-sheet..

americantypo.site11.com...

The next time, you will know how to write every word correctly, right? All you have to do is consult the list and you can see the right and the wrong way to spell it. Please do it before attempting to construct a serious message the next time - it will be that much easier to take the message seriously, if it actually makes sense.

My understanding of communication is whether or not what is said is understood. I understood perfectly what Olivine was saying and think it was unnecessary for your entire post to simply point out one small, minor word in light of the topic and use that to take the message as 'not serious'. Appointing yourself as some grammar god is condescending and not on topic. I took Olivine's message very seriously - yours I don't. I don't criticize people for spelling errors or grammatical errors or think any less of what they have to say because of it. It is the message that is important, not whether or not the message is 'perfect' in its delivery.

This isn't an English course. It's a discussion about Japan.

Shoujikina

This effects all of us.

It would be easier to take your message seriously, if it was written in english.

The word "effects" is PLURAL of the word "effect".

So, "This .. many effects ... all of us".

That doesn't make ANY SENSE in english!

If you, by chance, meant to use the word "affects", please note, that it begins with an "a", not with an "e".

If you suffer from 'american typo syndrome', I can give you a quick cheat-sheet..

americantypo.site11.com...

The next time, you will know how to write every word correctly, right? All you have to do is consult the list and you can see the right and the wrong way to spell it. Please do it before attempting to construct a serious message the next time - it will be that much easier to take the message seriously, if it actually makes sense.

I heard about many of Made in Japan food with radiation been detected by the local government in here.Northeast Japan food selling with very cheap price ...And they use ways to hiding their place of origin.
This would effect all of us.

reply to post by Shoujikina


Mother-in-law, is that you?

Just kidding, I screw that up regularly. Thanks for pointing it out.

The pay was at ￥10000 a day, but recently they had to up the pay to ￥20000 a day. ($200.00) Labor is in short supply in the Fukushima area and that is a fact. My guess is that after everyone is too sick too work there, they will start to allow foreign 3rd generation Japanese from Brazil in to assist in the cleanup. What many have not accepted is that this is an over 50 year clean-up process and that is only a professional guess from inside sources. It really is as bad as the gossip one hears these days. And yes, the Yakuza is a major player in the clean-up game.