Over 5,000 workers working every day at Fukushima Daiichi

September 29, 2014

Workers at Fukushima plant doubled in past year

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html

Sep. 29, 2014 - Updated 05:53 UTC+2

The number of workers taking part in the decommissioning and other work at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has doubled to more than 5,700 in the past year.

The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, says an average of 5,730 people were working at the damaged facility each day as of July.

The figure is nearly double from a year earlier, as more work is being done to contain contaminated water at the plant.

TEPCO says it is not facing a labor shortage at present, and that more than 10,000 workers are registered on its contractors' lists.

But analysts say the decommissioning process could take up to 40 years. They say more workers will be needed when work gets underway to remove nuclear fuel from the damaged reactors.

They also say additional workers will be needed to implement a plan to freeze the earth surrounding the facility to prevent groundwater from flowing into the plant's highly contaminated compounds.

TEPCO says it plans to improve the working conditions by reducing the amount of radiation around the plant, and simplifying procedures to hire workers.