Friday, June 24, 2011

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: TEPCO Cannot Confirm Identities of 37 Workers

TEPCO was so desperate to recruit workers for Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant that it hired people who didn't even "exist". Or rather, workers used pseudonyms at Fukushima I so that they could keep working at other nuke plants later without the radiation limit restricting them from working elsewhere.

Mainichi Shinbun Japanese (6/24/2011) reports that 37 of 69 workers whom TEPCO cannot trace after they stopped working at the plant used bogus names.

東京電力は24日、福島第1原発で3月に作業に従事し、内部被ばく線量が未測定のまま連絡の取れない69人のうち、実在するかどうかが確認できない作業員が37人に上ると発表した。

TEPCO haven't been able to contact 69 workers who worked at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in March and whose internal radiation levels haven't been measured. On June 24, the company announced that 37 workers out of 69 cannot be confirmed even to exist.

 東電の松本純一原子力・立地本部長代理は「(被ばく線量が増え、作業に従事できなくなるのを防ぐため)別の名前を使った可能性が否定できない」としている。

TEPCO's Junichi Matsumoto said, "We can't rule out the possibility that those workers used pseudonyms to hide the level of radiation exposure so that they could work at other nuclear power plants [after their work at Fukushima I]."

 37人はいずれも協力企業の社員などとして登録していたが、東電が各社に照会しても存在が確認できなかった。

All 37 workers were registered as employees of TEPCO affiliate companies. But TEPCO couldn't confirm that the workers existed when the company contacted its affiliate companies.

TEPCO's affiliate companies include large manufacturers like Toshiba, Hitachi and Kandenko. They each hire subcontractors, who then hire their own subcontractors, all the way down to at least 5, 6 layers. At the bottom of the subcontracting pyramid, they are often one-man operations that find willing workers, even from far-away places like Okinawa (video is in Japanese), where there is no nuke plant.

7 comments:

STEVE THE JEW said...

i wonder how many unconfirmed identities THE LIQUIDATORS had...

netudiant said...

Have to say that this really brings home the reality of working in Japan. If you do not have status as a company worker, you are very much on your own. That is a hard life indeed.

Anonymous said...

Robbie001 sez:

Yep, this is how the nuclear industry can show such stellar "worker" exposure rates during normal operations. Outside contract labor does a bulk of the dirty work while salaried workers sip coffee in the control room. With such shoddy record keeping covering up a few deaths or overexposures shouldn't be that hard.

RPT-SPECIAL REPORT: Japan's 'throwaway' nuclear workers:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/06/24/japan-nuclear-re-idUKL3E7HO0FE20110624

On another note:

Nuclear lapdog IAEA to remain on nuclear industry's lap, pledges to remain toothless lickspittle:

"But although the recommendations approved by the IAEA's conference were ambitious — including peer reviews of national nuclear regulatory agencies and random IAEA safety reviews of nuclear plants — the meeting gave neither the agency nor any other international body any authority to enforce them.

That means compliance in applying the safety practices is still voluntary, and their success depends on how strictly the new rules are observed and by how many nations."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jPuA5tBcWeMReyKz4oLrZtrEDDtQ?docId=695df706568b4ce0a82ea66b92678024

So much for the international nuclear industry buckling down and getting "serious" about reactor safety. As always business as usual is much cheaper and easier than meaningful action.

@jtatsuno said...

Talk about lack of security of Japanese Nuclear facilities. In an age where terrorism is prevalent this lack of management control shows how badly Tepco is running. Lies, deceit and incompetence. Why aren't the citizens of Japan up and arms and demonstrating against the collusion between Tepco and the government putting citizens in danger?!!

Anonymous said...

@ Robbie,

"lickspittle" indeed, flying from the mouths of nuclear madness

Anonymous said...

Seems like TEPCO has a problem confirming anything actually...

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