#Fukushima Fifty: Myth and Reality

For myths of so-called "Fukushima 50", you can read a whole bunch of UK and US sites, the latest being UK's Telegraph piece here. Or NY Times article from March 15, here.

"Fukushima 50", nameless, dedicated soldiers with the burning sense of mission to save the plant.

And here's part of the reality:

Here's an ad (in Japanese) for 1 temporary worker to work at Fukushima I and II Nuclear Power Plant. It was placed by a small construction company with 10 employees in Minami-Soma City, about 15 miles north of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, on February 3 this year. The ad will be effective until April 30. The ad has been circulating via the net in Japan since the Reactor 1 blew up.

Job description and compensation information from the ad:

• 1 temporary worker wanted for Fukushima I and II Nuclear Power Plant

• Job description: to carry out regular maintenance, machinery, electrical, welding and blacksmithing and scaffolding at the nuclear plants
  

• Daily pay: 9,000 yen to 11,000 yen (US$110 to $135)

• Monthly average pay: 189,000 yen to 231,000 yen (US$2,317 to $2,831) [21 to 25 days per month]

• Set benefits: None

• Bonus: 8,000 yen (US$98) for not missing a work in a month.

• Age: any age

• Education level: any
  

• Qualification: none

• Skills, experience: none needed

• Duration: more than 4 months, or 12-month contract

• Work hours: 8AM to 5PM

• Day off: Sat, Sun, holidays; 1 day every week; total days off per year 113 days

• Employer name: Takayama Sogyo

• Employer's business: facility construction and maintenance at Fukushima Nuclear Power Plants, and general construction and maintenance, contract farming

Would you like to risk your life with radiation for $110 a day? Well there are people who would be desperate for a job, any job, even a dangerous one like cleaning and inspecting the reactor core during the regular maintenance.

My guess is that this subcontractor gets money from Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), keep a good chunk of it as the "management" fee.

Takayama Sogyo is also hiring three welders/blacksmiths as regular employees with some benefits and higher daily wages (14,000 yen to 15,000 yen per day), because the company does require "experience" in working in a nuclear power plant, but also says "applicants with no prior experience in nuclear power plants are also considered, case by case".

In case no one with an experience applies for the job, I suppose.

It's no secret in Japan that TEPCO uses, just like any other power companies, numerous subcontractors who in turn use even greater number of subcontractors for dangerous works at nuclear power plants. There has been a quiet whispers from the beginning of this crisis that the workers that TEPCO uses at the plant are from the subcontractors near the bottom of the pyramid who really have no choice but send in workers, whether their own or temps in order to secure future business.

Read my previous post on "Genpatsu (Nuclear Power Plant) Gypsy" - the article that was yanked from Chunichi Shinbun.

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