Fukushima Plant Workers Start to Tell Their Story

April 2nd, 2011

Workers Comments

I head an interview with a couple of workers at the Fukushima Plant.

One man said that he did not know how much radioactive contamination he has suffered because there were not enough Dosimeters, or radiation tracking devices, to go around. Tepco had had 5,000 on hand, but they were washed away by the tsunami. He started crying on the phone, saying 50 millisieverts, 100 millisieverts, 500 millisieverts, a 1000 millisieverts, he did not know how contaminated he was.

Another man who heard that they were being called heroes by the foreign press, said that "he did not want to be called a hero, he did not want to be a hero."

Another young man in his twenties said that they had never had a change to contact their families. They lived near by and he was sure his house had been washed away.

The men in the control room hid under their desks during the earthquake. The ceiling fell down. They had been sure that nothing like this would ever happen.

During the first 3 days, several hundred men worked straight though without rest or food.

Now, they have meals only 2 times a day, some dried biscuits and a can of cooked chicken or fish. There is no water, no toilets with running water. During the first 3 days, there was not enough food for everyone. Many people ate no food or only had 1 meal during that time. They only had 1 blanket, when they slept.

Many of the people working in the plant come from sub-contractors, not Tepco people. The president of one of these companies goes out regularly to get food and drink for his people. He contacts their families and talks to them about what is going on. He said that many never want to work on a nuclear plant again.

On the 4th day, one young man learned that his house had be swept away. He lost his parents and his grandparents.

Again, the president of the sub-contracting company said that he felt he had betrayed a lot of people. He said that before, older people would ask him if it was safe and he would say, "hey, I'm living here with my family, would I do that if it wasn't safe." Now, he feels he betrayed them, his family, the town, the prefecture, the country.

Before it became a shockingly big story, Tepco, knew that they needed more Dosimeters, or radiation tracking devices. But they did not get them. Instead, they used the buddy system, where one worker would have the dosimeter and others would check out his. But a professor expert said that if a person was standing 1 meter close to a hot area and another was 3 meters away, the person standing 1 meter away would get 10 times the dose... so the buddy system does not really work. Once the news got out, other nuclear plants in Japan shared their dosimeters.

Looking for Work
My son heard that Tepco is offering 50,000 yen a day pay (a little over 550 dollars a day) to workers to come and help in the clean up, but there are few takers. Well, can you blame them. No food to speak of, bad sleeping conditions, no dosimeters. Seemingly little care or thought from the company.

My son said if they had done this, the situation might have been different:: Long ago when the plant was first built, they should have built a big house next to the plant and have the directors of Tepco live there by turns - several months or years. The president, the chairman, all the directors. Then the plant would have had must better safety systems in place. But they all live in Tokyo, so they don't care in the same way.

Farmers comments about the Plant
One farmer from within the 20 k exclusion limit, said that they will most likely not be able to use their land for decades. One wife said, "we supported Tokyo by providing a place for electricity to be produced with our sacrifice, they should support us now. There is still little or no searching going on the dead in the exclusion area, especially along the coast.