Energiepolitik - Atomkraft

The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 11, Issue 16, April 22, 2013.
Zum Jahrestag der Tschernobylkatastrophe am 26. April 1986

An appeal for improving labour conditions of Fukushima Daiichi workers 
賛同人募集！「福島第一の原発作業員の待遇改善を要求しよう」

Sumi Hasegawa with an introduction by Paul Jobin 

Introduction
Reacting to testimonies of workers published in Sekai (a progressive Japanese monthly journal) and recent radio broadcasts, this individual call from Canada echoes the requests of Japanese NGOs that have been engaged in negotiations with the Ministry of Health and Labor since April 2011 to defend the rights of the workers involved in the “cleanup” of the disaster-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and of those hired to carry out “decontamination” work in Fukushima prefecture.1

 If one considers the tremendous task remaining to be done in Fukushima Daiichi (such as the removal of the thousands of spent fuel rods) to avoid an apocalyptic scenario for Japan and the northern hemisphere,2 the workers employed at Fukushima Daiichi merit world attention and support. Their living and working conditions are indeed apocalyptic.

Besides the problems evoked in this call, another major issue emphasized by the Japanese NGOs is the lack of health insurance for most contract workers. Concerning radiation protection, the biggest problems are the following:

- The Ministry has decided to deny health follow-up checks to workers exposed to a cumulative dose below 50 mSv for external radiation exposure (only those above this dose will receive a one-year cancer test);

- TEPCO declared that there would be no records kept for internal radiation below 2 mSv;

- There is thus far no systematic dosimetry, nor have there been health follow-up checks for the people employed—mainly on a temporary basis—in the “decontamination” work on the various hot spots of Fukushima prefecture which the Citizen’s Nuclear Information Center’s Hideyuki Ban has called “displacing the contamination.”3

All of these issues require immediate attention and response from concerned citizens in Japan and internationally. Paul Jobin

Paul Jobin is Director, French Center for Research on Contemporary China, CEFC, Taipei Office, Associate Professor, University of Paris Diderot, and an Asia-Pacific Journal Associate.

Previous articles in Focus on the conditions and plight of Fukushima workers:

Anders Pape Møller and Timothy A. Mousseau, Uncomfortable Questions in the Wake of Nuclear Accidents at Fukushima and Chernobyl

Shoko Yoneyama, Life-world: Beyond Fukushima and Minamata

Iwata Wataru, Nadine Ribault and Thierry Ribault, Thyroid Cancer in Fukushima: Science Subverted in the Service of the State

Gabrielle Hecht, Nuclear Janitors: Contract Workers at the Fukushima Reactors and Beyond
Paul Jobin, Fukushima One Year On: Nuclear workers and citizens at risk

David McNeill, Crippled Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant at One Year: Back in the Disaster Zone

Cara O’Connell, Health and Safety Considerations: Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Workers at Risk of Heat-Related Illness

Matthew Penney, Nuclear Workers and Fukushima Residents at Risk: Cancer Expert on the Fukushima Situation

ATTENTION:
 
ABE Shinzo, Prime Minister of Japan
TAMURA Norihisa, Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan
SHIMOKOBE Kazuhiko, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Tokyo Electric Power Co., Ltd. (TEPCO)
HIROSE Naomi, President, Tokyo Electric Power Co., Ltd.(TEPCO)

An Appeal to Improve Labor Conditions for Workers at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant

Labor conditions for the workers employed to clean up after the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant operated by TEPCO have worsened considerably since the time of the accident; compensation has decreased, the housing situation has worsened, and more.This has been reported in at least three forums: first, on the radio programHôdô suru rajio Radio Broadcast News] broadcast on March 15, 2013, specifically in a segment called “Radio Broadcast News Brings You the True Story of the Two Years since the Nuclear Accident” (hereafter referred to as:Radio Broadcast News); second, a roundtable discussion published in the April 2013 issue of the journalSekaithat featured three workers at the nuclear plant, entitled “What is happening now at 1-F [an abbreviation for “Fukushima Dai-ichi”]?” (hereafter:Roundtable); and third, a report filed in the same issue ofSekaiby Fuse Yûjin titled “1-F Has Not Yet Been Restored” (hereafter:Report).These sources have publicized the issue in some detail, so in what follows, I would like to draw from these sources what I consider to be the main points of concern and my opinions on how to address them.