information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
19 Novembre 2013
November 19, 2013
He goes by the name “Happy” on Twitter, and he has more than 87,000 followers on the social networking site eager to know what is going on inside the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Happy has been working at nuclear plants for nearly 20 years. In October, he had a book published titled “Fukushima Daiichi Genpatsu Shusoku Nikki” that documents 700 days at the Fukushima plant since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
With the decades-long decommissioning of the reactors getting under way, Happy spoke with The Asahi Shimbun about the radioactive water leaks and other problems plaguing plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., and working conditions at the crippled facility. Following are excerpts of that interview:
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Question: TEPCO has started removing fuel from the storage pool for the No. 4 reactor. What do you think?
Answer: We have come all this way since the No. 4 reactor building was reduced to a wretched state (due to a hydrogen explosion). It is because of the workers who have put in strenuous efforts, despite being exposed to radiation.
Q: Why did you decide to tweet on conditions at the plant?
A: When the accident first occurred, media reports were not accurate and contained much speculation. I thought, “I must send out correct information as much as I can.”
Q: What is behind the string of problems, such as the radioactive water leaks?
A: At the nuclear plant, we usually work in teams of five to 10. A team leader cannot stay at the site for a long time because his accumulated radiation dose is already high. For that reason, he sometimes gives instructions, writing memos and drawing charts, without going to the site. I suspect that workers have misunderstood instructions and made mistakes in the absence of the leader.
Q: What do you think of TEPCO’s efforts to contain the crisis?
A: Immediately after the accident, the head office provided what is needed at the site, taking no account of cost. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda declared at the end of 2011 that the accident had been brought under control. I began to hear more often than before that spending requests (from plant officials) were denied by the head office.
We are using polyethylene pipes, a type we find at home centers, around the radioactive water storage tanks where metal pipes are required. The idea was to save time and money.
Q: What needs to be done to ensure there are enough skilled workers for the next 30 to 40 years, which will be required for the decommissioning?
A: It is necessary to guarantee long-term employment. Workers are only allowed to be exposed to up to 100 millisieverts of radiation over five years. Subcontractors pull workers from the site if they are exposed to 20 millisieverts in one year.
For example, we are exposed to about 20 millisieverts in just three months if we remove debris around a reactor building. Workers at subcontractors, who work only at nuclear plants, will have no jobs for the remaining nine months.
Yearlong employment must be secured by providing them with other tasks, such as decontamination work in low-radiation areas or jobs at thermal power plants.
(This article is based on an interview by Tetsuya Kasai.)
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