Harsh working conditions persist at Fukushima plant

[yuiyoshida]

8:51 pm, October 21, 2014

By Junpei Monma / The Yomiuri Shimbun FUKUSHIMA — Workers trying to bring the situation under control at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s crippled Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant continue to work in a severe environment 3½ years after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

To promote reactor decommissioning, which is expected to take 30 to 40 years, it is essential to improve that environment by addressing the workers’ dissatisfaction concerning issues such as decreased work efficiency due to the use of masks and the lack of space in resting rooms.

Entering the nuclear power plant, this reporter interviewed workers there about their working conditions:

When I entered the No.1 nuclear power plant, highly radioactive debris that had been scattered by the hydrogen explosion had already been removed, and a road passable by vehicles had been made. However, on the sea side of the nuclear reactor building, broken tanks and other debris still remained, and the dose level at a work site at a sea-side barrier meant to prevent contaminated water from reaching the sea was 80 microsieverts per hour or higher. At that level, the annual 1 millisievert limit for members of the general population is reached within half a day.

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001654137

[gratuitous]

1. Oh, bosh!

I have it on very good authority, Tepco itself, that everything is going just swimmingly at their Fukushima plant, and there is a whole host of folks here who will explain it to you as if you're a dolt with glowing subject lines that don't quite match up with their Tepco-supplied information. After all, who are you going to believe: Tepco or some reporter measuring microsieverts?

[FBaggins]

2. Still dealing with those reading comprehension problems, eh?

The "tepco-supplied information" (still not sure where else you would expect to get information from in this case) matches up precisely with the subject line. More than 99% of the spent fuel has been removed from unit 4 (11 spent fuel assemblies remain from the initial 1,331).

Telling that you found the need to hide your reply here on an unrelated thread rather than where it belongs (link).

As for this thread. Should we be surprised that it's difficult to work on the site of three nuclear meltdowns? Is making it more comfortable by, say, not requiring masks really a tradeoff worth considering?

there is a whole host of folks here who will explain it to you as if you're a dolt

Which, of course, is somewhat less offensive than accusing others of "fudging numbers" or being a "corporate mouthpiece".

[Octafish]

3. TEPCO enlisted the YAKUZA.

It's not patriotism, but profits that make for nuclear progress.

Yakuza Gangsters Recruit Homeless Men For Fukushima Nuclear Clean Up

http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2013/12/30/yakuza-gangsters-recruit-homeless-men-for-fukushima-nuclear-clean-up/

[FBaggins]

4. Nope

You make it sound as though they went to the Yakuza, when the reality is that they hired other companies to handle much of the cleanup tasks and those companies hired numerous contractors who themselves subcontracted other companies (in some cases it's reported to be as many as seven layers deep). The Yakuza have their tendrils throughout Japanese society and have a history of focusing on relief work. With over 100k members (including much of the media), it's hardly surprising to find them involved in the Fukushima cleanup (and all throughout the tsunami-damaged regions).

That's something very diffrent from a corporation "enlisting" them.

[Octafish]

5. I don't make it sound like anything: TEPCO uses the Yakuza.

Perhaps you don't know that because you don't know that Japan, on behalf of TEPCO, now censors its news.

Japan's timid coverage of Fukushima led this news anchor to revolt — and he's not alone (PRI)



Reporter: Sam Harnett
PRI, October 17, 2014

EXCERPT...

Japanese journalists did what Tajima calls "announcement journalism" in reporting on the crisis. He says they were reporting the press releases of big companies and the people in power. And he's not the only one who thinks so.

“I am a newscaster, but I couldn't tell the true story on my news program," says Jun Hori, a former anchor for NHK, the Japanese state broadcaster.

Hori says the network restricted what he and other journalists could say about Fukushima and moved more slowly than foreign media to report on the disaster and how far radiation was spreading. The attitude in the newsroom was not to question official information

“I was on the ground in Fukushima, and a lot of people kept asking me, why didn't you tell us earlier about what is happening?” Hori says.

Out of frustration, Hori started tweeting uncensored coverage. “I got a huge response,” he says, “but then my superiors said the NHK was getting complaints from politicians about what I was saying. They told me I had to stop.”

CONTINUED w/audio, video...

http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-10-16/frustrated-japans-coverage-fukushima-crisis-japanese-news-anchor-started

I wrote about it on DU: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025685215

[FBaggins]

6. Yes you did

In fact you repeat the claim here.

It's easy to provide evidence that Yakuza has been involved in the cleanup... it would be hard to believe that they weren't given the size of the job and their reach throughout the area and the companies that could be subcontractors on that kind of job... what you haven't provided is any evidence that Tepco sought them out

That doesn't have anything to do with the story you pivot to. You can't make up a story and then back it up by claiming that the lack of evidence is because of supposed censorship.

Japan's timid coverage of Fukushima led this news anchor to revolt

Nor is that claim much of a surprise. He butted heads with his employer for years (not just on Fukushima) and is trying his hand at an indy run. Should we be surprised that he claims to have "the truth" but the powers that be wouldn't let him tell it?

No word, of course, on what truth that was and how he knew it at the time.

[Octafish]

7. You make assertions, yet you provide no proof.

Why is that, FBaggins?

[FBaggins]

8. I provide no proof?

You said "Tepco enlisted Yakuza" and now you want me to provide proof that you said that Tepco enlisted them?

Why is that?

[Octafish]

9. No, I showed where you are wrong.

I also showed where I learned that TEPCO enlisted the Yakuza: Forbes magazine, not normally a radical publication.

I also showed you how Japan and TEPCO are censoring information about Fukushima: Jun Hori, formerly of NHK.

[FBaggins]

10. You really think so? That's odd

It appears to be missing from the thread. Was it censored?

I also showed where I learned that TEPCO enlisted the Yakuza:

Nope. You may have shown where you got that notion... but if you "learned" that, you learned it wrong. As I pointed out, the source (whcih is fine) says only that Yakuza was recriuiting homeless people to work at Fukshima. It doesn't say that Tepco reached out or enlisted Yakuza to do that.

The difference is important... because missing it makes you sound just like a tea party nut claiming that finding lots of hispanics working on your home improvemen proves that the employer intends to hire "illega aliens". This an example of Yakuza using the cleanup the same way they've used disasters for decades. You didn't provide evidence that tepco (3/4/5/+ levels above the temp agency actually hiring people) knew anything about it - let alone intended for it to happen.

I also showed you how Japan and TEPCO are censoring information about Fukushima

Nope. That too is incorrect. What you provided was a disgruntled fired employee making himself out to look like a hero (just as he tried to do while he was still working there). He claims that it happened... he (and you) provide no actual evidence for it. If you look back to some of the nonsense that he was reporting at the time, it's hardly surprising that his employer told him to knock it off.

[Octafish]

11. So now I sound like a "tea party nut''?

Nice smear.

I use links to where I get my info so DUers can go to the source and judge for themselves.

You, I notice from going back over all your responses to my Fukushima posts, never do that.

Why do you never actually name a source for your contentions?

[FBaggins]

12. Ever heard of a "simile"?

The logical error that you made is of the same order. In order to point it out, I need to get past your predisposition to jump to conclusions that are unsupported by the facts, so I need to use an example that you would agree was incorrect.

That's not a smear.

Let's take, for instance, your longstanding (faulty) claim that Tepco said that "plutonium is not dangerous". They actually said that a specific occurrence where they identified plutonium at the site did not represent a danger, because the levels were no higher than those found throughout Japan for several decades. They never said (nor could they) that plutonium in general isn't dangerous. Yet you continue to repeat the claim over and over for years. You're obviously blind to the logical fallacy, so I've been looking for ways to explain it to you.

My last attempt was to use arsenic instead. I don't remember whether you ever replied to that. So let's try again.

California is going through an exceptionally bad drought... which caused wells to tap from lower in the table than they used to... which significantly increases the chance that you'll end up with arsenic in your drinking water. You could easily see cases where residents well water tests positive for arsenic... but the state Department of Public Health tells you that the levels in your water are well below allowable contamination levels and do not present a health hazard.

If someone came on DU and constantly accused the state of California of saying "arsenic is not dangerous"... they would either be badly mistaken... or dishonest.

I have continued to treat you as badly mistaken... but you're making it harder to sell.

[Octafish]

13. So, you can't back up your OPINION with a source.

It's clear where you're coming from.

[FBaggins]

14. Sure I can.

What statement here do you believe is an "opinion"? Most of the corrections here were merely fixing your mis-read of your own source. How do provide a "source" that says "they never said what you think they said"?

[Octafish]

15. But, you don't.

Why is that?

As for me on this OP, no where did I make a mistake.

[FBaggins]

18. How ironic

No substantiation... just more blather... while simultaneously claiming that I'm the one that won't back things up.

Your extreme confimation bias must be so convenient at times, eh?

As for me on this OP, no where did I make a mistake.

[SidDithers]

17. Not Forbes magazine...

but in a blog written by William Pentland, Managing Director of Brookside Strategies LLC, which happens to be hosted at the unedited, unmonitored blog section of the Forbes website.

William Pentland:
http://www.brooksidestrategies.com/about/staff/

Literally anyone can write a blog and have it hosted at Forbes.

Oh, and do you still recognize Forbes as the highbrow magazine for investor types? Because guess what: Their website now hosts hundreds of unedited blogs from random, often unpaid writers off the street. Seriously, you can write for them if you want. So now any time you see a Forbes.com story and the URL has "sites/(some dude's name here)" in the middle, you're not reading a news story from professional Forbes reporters/editors, you're reading a blog post from some random person. That's why you can see a "Forbes" article claiming that a majority of scientists doubt global warming -- in reality, it's a press release written by a shill for the Heartland Institute, an oil-industry-funded group that ran billboards comparing environmentalists to serial killers.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-easy-ways-to-spot-b.s.-news-story-internet/

Note to interested parties - Cracked.com is not, in any way, shape or form, owned by a Kuwaiti oil billionaire pushing an agenda with his petrodollars, as has been claimed on this site.



Claiming that Yakusa information is published in Forbes magazine wrong. At best, it's a simple mistake. At worst, the claim is deliberately deceptive.

Sid

[Octafish]

19. More on the Fukushima and the Yakuza.

First Arrest Made Linking Yakuza with Fukushima Nuclear Clean-Up Crews

JAKE ADELSTEIN
The Wire, May 22, 2012

In the first arrest in relation to the yakuza's role in Japan's nuclear industry since last March's devastating earthquake and tsunami, police in Fukushima charged a senior yakuza leader for illegally dispatching workers to the reconstruction at the TEPCO-run Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant. According to reports by Sankei Shinbun and other sources, the Organized Crime Control Division has arrested a senior boss of the Sumiyoshi-kai (住吉会 who dispatched men, including yakuza members to a construction subcontractor in Tochigi Prefecture, and these men were sent into the nuclear plant area where they allegedly participated in containment work for the damaged facilities.

The charges pertain to labor dispatches from May to the end of July last year. The labor dispatch laws forbid dispatching workers to construction sites. Japan’s nuclear industry has long been fraught with yakuza connections which we first wrote about last June. TEPCO is not the only nuclear power plant operator in Japan to get in trouble for using yakuza-supplied labor. KEPCO (Kansai Electric Power Company) also had workers illegally supplied by a Kudo-kai front company working at their Ooi Nuclear Power Plant. A Fukuoka Police investigation in January uncovered the problem. The Kudo-kai is an extremely violent yakuza group based in Kyushu, and like other southern Japan gangs they are known for their fondness of pineapples.

TEPCO is due to be effectively nationalized by the Japanese government. The firm’s legacy of cronyism, incompetence, cover-ups, and organized crime connections were a large part of the decision to remove TEPCO from private hands. Hopefully, a change in command will result in a change in safety, compliance, and working conditions at the nuclear power plants they have operated.

SOURCE: http://www.thewire.com/global/2012/05/first-arrest-made-linking-yakuza-fukushima-nuclear-clean-crews/52649/



What's CRACKED got to say about Fukushima, SidDithers of DU?

BTW: I clearly sourced and stated where I posted my information. Insisting otherwise seems like an attempt to smear.

[SidDithers]

20. You misrepresented a blog as Forbes Magazine...

I also showed where I learned that TEPCO enlisted the Yakuza: Forbes magazine, not normally a radical publication.

I corrected your error.

Your welcome.

Sid

[Octafish]

21. OK. That explains why you made a big deal of my little mistake about Cracked's owner.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025644375

Why do you blow things out of proportion, SidDithers of DU?

[Octafish]

16. TEPCO: Half of contract workers at Fukushima work under dodgy conditions

By TOSHIO TADA/ Staff Writer
The Asahi Shimbun, December 05, 2012

Nearly half of contract workers at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant after the disaster there last year toiled in conditions that apparently breached labor laws, according to a survey by Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator.

More than 1,000 workers apparently fell into this category.

The employment security law prohibits a subcontractor from recruiting people for the purpose of just getting them to work for a client company.

This means the subcontractor, not the client, is responsible for giving on-the-job instruction and providing whatever equipment is necessary.

Temp staff agencies are not bound by such restrictions.

The survey released Dec. 3 found that 1,160 contract workers received on-site job instruction from those other than their employers. The figure accounted for 47.9 percent of all contract workers at the nuclear facility surveyed.

CONTINUED...

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201212050007

This older article sheds light on why the government of Japan and TEPCO don't like a free press, especially when it comes to Fukushima. If informed, the People, like TEPCO's disposable temps, would not like the truth.