12 Janvier 2014
January 12, 2013
Nuclear industry holds recruiting event in Tokyo
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140112_20.html
A nuclear industry organization held a recruiting event in Tokyo on Sunday.
Students who will graduate in the spring of 2015 gathered for the event featuring 22 companies and organizations. They included utility firms and reactor manufacturers.
The annual event is held in Tokyo and Osaka. It attracted 420 people, slightly more than the 388 who came last year, but still about one-fifth of the number before the nuclear accident in Fukushima.
Some companies are visiting universities around the country to recruit students.
A participant from a trading firm selling radiological equipment says he would like to recruit enough people to continue the business. He said the situation has become more difficult as fewer young people are studying subjects related to nuclear power generation.
Takuya Hattori heads the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, which hosted the event. He says the industry needs to secure personnel, regardless of the government's nuclear policy.
He says a key issue is whether the industry can show it has an appealing future.
A 23-year-old student studying nuclear engineering at a graduate school in Tokyo says he wants to work for a plant maker that manufactures reactors to support the decommissioning in Fukushima and to develop equipment that secures nuclear safety.
Another 23-year-old student, who is studying radiation at a graduate school in Tokyo and is from Fukushima, says he felt powerless when the nuclear accident occurred.
He said his parents don't want him to work in the industry, but he wants to be involved in the decommissioning work and contribute to the reconstruction of his home prefecture.
A 23-year-old woman, who is studying the removal of radioactive substances and is also from Fukushima, says she was shocked by the accident and started to study the subject in graduate school.
She said she wants to enter a company that is involved in decontamination so that she can help Fukushima.
Jan. 12, 2014 - Updated 13:39 UTC