Reality Inside #Fukushima I Nuke Plant (2): 10% of Workers Are Yakuza-Sourced

And all pretend to see nothing, hear nothing and say nothing.

This is the second part of the talk given by Tomohiko Suzuki, journalist who managed to work inside Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant as a temporary worker, at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan on December 15, 2011. For the first part and a bit more about Mr. Suzuki, go to my previous post here.

From BLOGOS Part 1 and BLOGOS Part 2:

About "Fukushima 50":

Fukushima50と言って世界的に有名になった作業員、職員達がいます。水素爆発後も残って収束作業に当たった彼らの勇気は賞賛されるべきだが、とあるメーカーの研究者に現段階でも福島第一原発で働くことは「死んでくれ」と同じことと言われました。それくらい危機的状況は変わっていない。

There are workers and employees [of TEPCO] who became famous world-wide as "Fukushima 50". They are to be praised for having continued working at the plant after the hydrogen explosions trying to contain the accident. But I was told by a researcher at a certain manufacturing company that to work at Fukushima I Nuke Plant at this stage [summer of 2011?] is the same as "to be prepared to die". The crisis situation hasn't changed.

事故直後、東電は各社に死んでもいい人間を集めてくれと指示しました。その時、原発内に入るのに放射能管理手帳は必要なかった。健康診断などもなかった。実際、そういうパニック状態だったことは間違いないが。

Right after the accident, TEPCO ordered [the first-tier affiliate] companies to gather workers who wouldn't be missed if they died [or who were willing to die]. At that time, no "radioactivity control pocketbook" was needed to enter the plant. There was no health check. In fact, it was a panic situation.

TEPCO's effort to cover their behind:

ところが東電は、当時の名簿、健康診断結果を出せと、先月あたり下請けに言ってきた。もう辞めた人もいるし、あの状況下で誰が入ったかも正確にわからないし、3月4月に働くための健康診断を今出しても意味がない。

But TEPCO has been demanding the subcontractors since last month [November 2011] that they submit the name lists of workers [in March and April] together with the results of health checkups. Some workers have already quit, and there is no accurate data on who went to the plant in the [chaotic] situation. There is no point in submitting the result of the health checkups done in order to work in March and April 2011.

結果どうなるかというと、下請け企業は、「そんなことは出来ない」と東電に言えず、作業員に偽造の健康診断書、もしくはそれに近いものを「自主的に」出させる。それがマスコミにバレれば「私たちは指示はしていない」と言って、クビを切る。こういうことが原発のほぼ全てのエリアにおいて、日常的に行われている。

So what happens? The subcontractors cannot say to TEPCO that it is impossible to comply with the request. Instead, they will ask workers to "voluntarily" submit the fake health checkup result or close to it. When that's discovered by the media, the subcontractors will say "We didn't order them to fake it" and fire the workers. In almost all aspects of a nuclear power plant operation, that sort of things happens daily.

Yakuza Outsourcing:

そういう中に、暴力団、ヤクザが労働者として入り込んでいる。ヤクザは事故以前から、原発の共同体の中に入っている。東電に聞けば知らないと言うだろう。問題になれば下請けのせいにして、トカゲの尻尾切りで終わらせる。

In that environment, the yakuza comes in as nuke plant workers. Even before the accident, the yakuza is part of the nuclear plant community. If you ask TEPCO they will say they don't know anything about it. When it becomes a problem, TEPCO will blame subcontractors, and cut them off like a lizard's casting off of its tail to escape.

実際に確認した暴力団員はたった一人ですが、直接現場で働くというより、労働者を派遣するほうに入っていますので、労働者も暴力団の口利きで入ったと自覚していない人も沢山います。

I know only one confirmed yakuza at the [Fukushima] plant. But the yakuza is on the side of procuring workers rather than actually working at the plant. There are many workers who didn't know they got there with the yakuza acting as go-between.

これを証拠というのはあまりにも乱暴ですが、とある組織の所有車が、原発事故後、どんどんいい車になっていくので、あそこもそうだなという噂が立っております。派遣の1割くらいが暴力団関連企業です。登記簿を見れば役員に組員の名前があるのですぐ分かります。

This cannot be presented as evidence, but the cars owned by a certain [yakuza] organization have been upgraded to better and better cars, and it's been rumored that the organization [has been involved in procuring workers for Fukushima I Nuke Plant]. About 10 percent of the workers are from the companies with ties to the yakuza. If you look up the company register you would know right away, because it would list the names of the members [of a particular yakuza organization] as corporate officers.

Plausible deniability. If you don't know it, or don't officially acknowledge it, you are not responsible. It is in the Japanese DNA. It permeates the political, the corporate, and the social lives in Japan. It works wonderfully in peacetime, when everyone sort of looks the other way when some inconvenience happens and pretends he/she doesn't see. When a disaster stares them in their faces, many still cannot see it, thanks to the training it has gotten throughout the history.

Hopefully that is slowly changing, as the Internet and social media (particularly Twitter in Japan) have helped crack the heads of enough people who are starting to wake up.

But "hope" has been a dirty word for the past few years.

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Business as Usual for Nuke Industry as Hitachi-GE Won Negotiating Right with Lithuanian Government for Nuke Plant in the Country

As the cattle farmers despair over radioactive hay and cattle, and more locations found with very high radiation (hot spots and hot areas), the Japanese government plans to shrink the planned evacuation zone as it pushes a nuclear power plant in Lithuania.

The Hitachi-GE joint venture has won the right to negotiate with the Lithuanian government to build a nuclear power plant in the country, beating Toshiba/Westinghouse. Another successful government-industry joint effort to push super-large "infrastructure" projects in developing countries throughout the world.

Nuclear accident? What accident? Have you heard of a nuclear accident recently, which happened on Hitachi-GE reactors? Lithuanians?

Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano commented on the success of Hitachi-GE during the press conference on July 15 as follows (according to J-Cast News, 7/15/2011):

「今回の事故があっても、日本の技術力について他国から評価をいただけているということについてはポジティブに受け止めたい」

"Despite the Fukushima accident, the Japanese technology is still highly valued by other countries. It is very positive."

Asked about PM Kan's remark that the nuclear technology is an "uncontrollable technology", Edano said:

"I don't remember the context of his remark, so I cannot comment."

Edano, Kaieda (Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry) and Hosono (PM's assistant and Minister in charge of the Fukushima accident) have been very close these days as if they were identical triplets (just look at this great shot from NHK the other day; from left, Edano, Kaieda, Hosono), planning for the "stress test" for the nuclear power plants so that they can be re-started ASAP and seemingly going around the prime minister if not avoiding him.

The Mitsubishi-AREVA JV has won the right to negotiate with the Jordanian government for their first nuke plant in the country. Toshiba, who owns 100% of Westinghouse Electric, has been pushing for the Mongolian fuel processing plant.

Business as usual for the world's nuke industry.

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Toshiba Pushes for Spent Fuel Processing Plant in Mongolia, in Discussion with US Government

Toshiba owns and operates Westingshouse Electric (77% ownership), and has continued to sell nuclear power plants all over the world after the Fukushima accident. So does Hitachi with GE, and so does Mitsubishi Heavy Industries with AREVA. Business as usual, no matter what.

From Kyodo News Japanese (10:08PM JST 7/1/2011):

米原子力大手ウェスチングハウス・エレクトリック（ＷＨ）を子 会社に持つ東芝の佐々木則夫社長が５月中旬、米政府高官に書簡を送り、使用済み核燃料などの国際的な貯蔵・処分場をモンゴルに建設する計画を盛り込んだ新 構想を推進するよう要請、水面下で対米工作を進めていることが１日、分かった。

It became known on July 1 that Norio Sasaki, the president of Toshiba which owns Westingshouse Electric, a major nuclear energy company in the US, sent a letter to a high ranking official in the US government in mid May urging the US government to promote the new scheme that includes a plan to build an international storage and final processing plant for the nuclear spent fuel in Mongolia.

　モンゴルでの核処分場計画は、新興国への原発輸出をにらみ、モンゴルで加工したウラン燃料の供給と使用後の処理 を担う「包括的燃料サービス（ＣＦＳ）」構想の一環。米国とモンゴルが主導し、日本にも参加を呼び掛けた。経済産業省が後押ししてきたが、外務省が慎重姿 勢を示すなど政府内に異論もある。

The plan to build a processing plant in Mongolia is part of the "CFS [Comprehensive Fuel Service?]" scheme to process uranium and to process the spent fuel in Mongolia, eying the lucrative nuclear plant markets in developing countries. The US and Mongolia have been leading the effort, and have asked Japan to join. But there is a difference of opinion within the Japanese government; the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has been pushing for the idea, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not too keen.

As I wrote here before, Mongolia does have faults that are capable of producing Magnitude 8 earthquakes. How to transport the spent fuel rods to Mongolia should be a problem, though. Either China or Russia has to agree to have them transported overland. Russia is unlikely to allow that, as it is in direct competition with the US and the West to win nuke plant contracts in developing nations with a packaged deal like the CFS. And China? Maybe, if the US/Mongolia/Japan let China in on the scheme, in exchange of allowing the use of the facility and some "technology transfer" from the US and/or Japan.

It looks like the Cold War has never ended in the minds of politicians and nuclear industry people.

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