Japanese Workers Braved Radiation for a Temp Job
Current and former workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, above, describe hazardous conditions and lax safety practices.
By HIROKO TABUCHI
Published: April 9, 2011
KAZO, Japan — The ground started to buck at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and Masayuki Ishizawa could scarcely stay on his feet. Helmet in hand, he ran from a workers’ standby room outside the plant’s No. 3 reactor, near where he and a group of workers had been doing repair work. He saw a chimney and crane swaying like weeds. Everybody was shouting in a panic, he recalled.
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Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, via Kyodo News and Reuters
Workers refueled a portable power generator at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant last month.
Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Many of the workers who handle dangerous duties at Japan's nuclear plants are itinerant laborers with little job security.
Moshe Komata/The New York Times
Masayuki Ishizawa had a close call as a nuclear worker.
Mr. Ishizawa, 55, raced to the plant’s central gate. But a security guard would not let him out of the complex. A long line of cars had formed at the gate, and some drivers were blaring their horns. “Show me your IDs,” Mr. Ishizawa remembered the guard saying, insisting that he follow the correct sign-out procedure. And where, the guard demanded, were his supervisors?
“What are you saying?” Mr. Ishizawa said he shouted at the guard. He looked over his shoulder and saw a dark shadow on the horizon, out at sea, he said. He shouted again: “Don’t you know a tsunami is coming?”
Mr. Ishizawa, who was finally allowed to leave, is not a nuclear specialist; he is not even an employee of the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the crippled plant. He is one of thousands of untrained, itinerant, temporary laborers who handle the bulk of the dangerous work at nuclear power plants here and in other countries, lured by the higher wages offered for working with radiation. Collectively, these contractors were exposed to levels of radiation about 16 times as high as the levels faced by Tokyo Electric employees last year, according to Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which regulates the industry. These workers remain vital to efforts to contain the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plants.
They are emblematic of Japan’s two-tiered work force, with an elite class of highly paid employees at top companies and a subclass of laborers who work for less pay, have less job security and receive fewer benefits. Such labor practices have both endangered the health of these workers and undermined safety at Japan’s 55 nuclear reactors, critics charge.
“This is the hidden world of nuclear power,” said Yuko Fujita, a former physics professor at Keio University in Tokyo and a longtime campaigner for improved labor conditions in the nuclear industry. “Wherever there are hazardous conditions, these laborers are told to go. It is dangerous for them, and it is dangerous for nuclear safety.”
Of roughly 83,000 workers at Japan’s 18 commercial nuclear power plants, 88 percent were contract workers in the year that ended in March 2010, the nuclear agency said. At the Fukushima Daiichi plant, 89 percent of the 10,303 workers during that period were contractors. In Japan’s nuclear industry, the elite are operators like Tokyo Electric and the manufacturers that build and help maintain the plants like Toshiba and Hitachi. But under those companies are contractors, subcontractors and sub-subcontractors — with wages, benefits and protection against radiation dwindling with each step down the ladder.
Interviews with about a half-dozen past and current workers at Fukushima Daiichi and other plants paint a bleak picture of workers on the nuclear circuit: battling intense heat as they clean off radiation from the reactors’ drywells and spent-fuel pools using mops and rags, clearing the way for inspectors, technicians and Tokyo Electric employees, and working in the cold to fill drums with contaminated waste.
Some workers are hired from construction sites, and some are local farmers looking for extra income. Yet others are hired by local gangsters, according to a number of workers who did not want to give their names.
They spoke of the constant fear of getting fired, trying to hide injuries to avoid trouble for their employers, carrying skin-colored adhesive bandages to cover up cuts and bruises.
In the most dangerous places, current and former workers said, radiation levels would be so high that workers would take turns approaching a valve just to open it, turning it for a few seconds before a supervisor with a stopwatch ordered the job to be handed off to the next person. Similar work would be required at the Fukushima Daiichi plant now, where the three reactors in operation at the time of the earthquake shut down automatically, workers say.
“Your first priority is to avoid pan-ku,” said one current worker at the Fukushima Daini plant, using a Japanese expression based on the English word puncture. Workers use the term to describe their dosimeter, which measures radiation exposure, from reaching the daily cumulative limit of 50 millisieverts. “Once you reach the limit, there is no more work,” said the worker, who did not want to give his name for fear of being fired by his employer.
Takeshi Kawakami, 64, remembers climbing into the spent-fuel pool of the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant during an annual maintenance shutdown in the 1980s to scrub the walls clean of radiation with brushes and rags. All workers carried dosimeters set to sound an alarm if exposure levels hit a cumulative dose limit; Mr. Kawakami said he usually did not last 20 minutes.
“It was unbearable, and you had your mask on, and it was so tight,” Mr. Kawakami said. “I started feeling dizzy. I could not even see what I was doing. I thought I would drown in my own sweat.”
Since the mid-1970s, about 50 former workers have received workers’ compensation after developing leukemia and other forms of cancer. Health experts say that though many former workers are experiencing health problems that may be a result of their nuclear work, it is often difficult to prove a direct link. Mr. Kawakami has received a diagnosis of stomach and intestinal cancer.
News of workers’ mishaps turns up periodically in safety reports: one submitted by Tokyo Electric to the government of Fukushima Prefecture in October 2010 outlines an accident during which a contract worker who had been wiping down a turbine building was exposed to harmful levels of radiation after accidentally using one of the towels on his face. In response, the company said in the report that it would provide special towels for workers to wipe their sweat.
Most day workers were evacuated from Fukushima Daiichi after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which knocked out the plant’s power and pushed some of the reactors to the brink of a partial meltdown. Since then, those who have returned have been strictly shielded from the news media; many of them are housed at a staging ground for workers that is off limits to reporters. But there have been signs that such laborers continue to play a big role at the crippled power plant.
The two workers who were injured two weeks ago when they stepped in radioactive water were subcontractor employees. As of Thursday, 21 workers at the plant had each been exposed to cumulative radiation levels of more than 100 millisieverts, or the usual limit set for nuclear plant workers during an emergency, according to Tokyo Electric. (That limit was raised to 250 millisieverts last month.)
The company refused to say how many contract workers had been exposed to radiation. Of roughly 300 workers left at the plant on Thursday, 45 were employed by contractors, the company said.
Day laborers are being lured back to the plant by wages that have increased along with the risks of working there. Mr. Ishizawa, whose home is about a mile from the plant and who evacuated with the town’s other residents the day after the quake, said he had been called last week by a former employer who offered daily wages of about $350 for just two hours of work at the Fukushima Daiichi plant — more than twice his previous pay. Some of the former members of his team have been offered nearly $1,000 a day. Offers have fluctuated depending on the progress at the plant and the perceived radiation risks that day. So far, Mr. Ishizawa has refused to return.
Working conditions have improved over the years, experts say. While exposure per worker dropped in the 1990s as safety standards improved, government statistics show, the rates have been rising since 2000, partly because there have been more accidents as reactors age. Moreover, the number of workers in the industry has risen, as the same tasks are carried out by more employees to reduce individual exposure levels.
Tetsuen Nakajima, chief priest of the 1,200-year-old Myotsuji Temple in the city of Obama near the Sea of Japan, has campaigned for workers’ rights since the 1970s, when the local utility started building reactors along the coast; today there are 15 of them. In the early 1980s, he helped found the country’s first union for day workers at nuclear plants.
The union, he said, made 19 demands of plant operators, including urging operators not to forge radiation exposure records and not to force workers to lie to government inspectors about safety procedures. Although more than 180 workers belonged to the union at its peak, its leaders were soon visited by thugs who kicked down their doors and threatened to harm their families, he said.
“They were not allowed to speak up,” Mr. Nakajima said. “Once you enter a nuclear power plant, everything’s a secret.”
Last week, conversations among Fukushima Daiichi workers at a smoking area at the evacuees’ center focused on whether to stay or go back to the plant. Some said construction jobs still seemed safer, if they could be found. “You can see a hole in the ground, but you can’t see radiation,” one worker said.
Mr. Ishizawa, the only one who allowed his name to be used, said, “I might go back to a nuclear plant one day, but I’d have to be starving.” In addition to his jobs at Daiichi, he has worked at thermal power plants and on highway construction sites in the region. For now, he said, he will stay away from the nuclear industry.
“I need a job,” he said, “but I need a safe job.”
本週，香港媒體在報導和評論中國大陸新聞時關注的焦點主要有：拘捕艾未未反映了中國當局的哪些特徵？大陸孕婦大量湧入香港產子，必將毒化香港的文明與安寧。德國之聲摘編如下。
艾未未的被捕宣示"中共全面收緊言論空間"
香港《蘋果日報》針對艾未未事件發表社評，題目是《拘捕艾未未是再抓國民為人質》。社評寫道："自內地爆發茉莉花革命集會以來，當局已刑事拘留20多人，即會落案檢控他們，編織的罪名則五花八門，包括尋釁滋事罪、非法集會罪、煽動顛覆國家政權罪、危害國家安全罪、顛覆國家政權罪等。艾未未是近期第一個被指控涉及經濟犯罪的公共知識分子，但這種手法並不新鮮。早在1998年，福建異見人士方覺就被控非法經營罪，判囚四年。至2007年，維權律師郭飛雄也在廣東被控非法經營罪，判囚五年。"
社評寫道："中國現時面對兩大政治局勢：對內，領導層的換屆選舉已經展開，……對外，北非、中東的反獨裁反貪腐示威浪潮，令國際輿論關注下一波會不會發生在中國，……中國高層顯然已經感受到這種壓力，因此一邊透過官方傳媒大造輿論，指中國不是利比亞，中國民眾期望社會穩定，另一邊則透過拘押活躍的公共知識分子、網民，企圖阻延茉莉花在中國的綻放，又累積與西方國家進行人質外交的籌碼。……北京當局近年玩弄捉、放國際知名異見人士的手法越來越嫻熟，一邊自吹自擂中國司法獨立、司法主權不容外國干涉，另一邊又會不失時機地放逐一些異見人士，給足歐美領袖面子，同時也削弱這些異見人士在中國的影響力。"
《蘋果日報》最後寫道："艾未未的母親高瑛表示，艾未未失踪三日，如果不是公安上門抄家，還以為艾未未被黑社會綁架。是的，艾未未並沒有被黑社會綁架，但被政府綁架了，被政府當成權鬥和外交的人質綁架了。一個綁架國民作為外交籌碼的政府，一個囚禁諾貝爾和平獎得主劉曉波、歐盟最高人權獎薩哈洛夫獎得主胡佳的政府，有甚麼資格說司法獨立？有甚麼資格說人權？"
《明報》本周也發表署名"潘小濤"的文章，題為《艾未未與劉曉波有何不同？ 》："......表面上，兩人有不少相似之處：大家都批評中共；同是不容於北京當局的人；都是因言獲罪。但實際上，艾未未被捕所揭櫫的問題，特別是人權和言論自由，都比劉曉波案嚴重很多。劉曉波是一位作家、大學教師，他有自己的政治綱領，期望中國落實憲政民主，他發起的《零八憲章》正是要實踐自己的政治主張。雖然劉曉波的政見溫和，也沒說明要推翻中共政權，《零八憲章》的內容也跟中國憲法相差無幾，但一旦實行其政治主張，必定會顛覆現制度，中共權力也會被限制，最後甚至失去執政權。中共才認定劉曉波在搞政治顛覆，因而施以重手。艾未未呢？他不僅有深厚的家庭背景，父親艾青是三四十年代名重一時的詩人，曾任中國作協副主席（中共的副部級幹部，總理溫家寶就曾公開朗誦艾青的詩《我愛這土地》：「為什麼我的眼裡常含淚水？因為我對這土地愛得深沉……」來表達愛國之情）。
艾未未自己也是一位名氣很大、很有影響力的藝術家（前清華大學美術學院教授陳丹青稱艾未未為「中國的安迪華荷」），更是一個堅持人性個性和追求自由的人，套用《人民日報》轄下《環球時報》的社論所言，他是「中國社會的特立獨行者」。從艾未未的言論、藝術作品，他個人的經歷，這句評價確實很中肯。問題是，我行我素、獨立特行就該被鎮壓嗎？......如果說劉曉波的聖誕審判，預示著北京當局全力鎮壓政治異見人士，防止政治顛覆，則對艾未未的打壓，預示著中共全面收緊言論空間，就連譏諷、嘲笑也不再容忍了。"
內地孕婦香港產子是"大陸社會的惡質化"表現
與此同時，最近一段時間，中國大陸許多孕婦湧赴香港產子，希望能夠使後代獲得香港永久居民的身份。對此，香港特區政府最近開始採取措施予以收緊。 《蘋果日報》本週另一篇社評的題目是《孕婦潮是內地惡質社會對香港的又一踐踏》。社評寫道："繼大陸惡客對香港旅遊業的衝擊，內地孕婦來港產子潮，是大陸惡質化社會對香港文明的又一踐踏。較惡客事件更可怕及嚴重的是，它不是單一事件，而是影響香港社會整體生活的事態，它意味著在一國兩制之下，一國那主要一制的畸形發展，不斷對香港市民平靜的、安居樂業的生活蠶食，並攻陷我們的生活。"
社評寫道："除了少數富裕人口已足以壓垮香港之外，大陸社會的惡質化還表現在醫療體系越來越沒規矩和向錢看，收費離譜紅包盛行而價碼沒有定規，醫療水平缺保證。要享受標準化而廉潔的醫療服務，就促使內地更多人要來港產子了。內地欺矇拐騙之風盛行，在專權政治下，老百姓要生存都不得不變成刁民。香港公立醫院基於人道，過去不會在入院時先繳費，於是出現大量來港產子後即「走數」的現象。 ……"
社評最後寫道："一國兩制的一國是強勢，香港這一制是弱勢。十四年來，一國不斷衝擊香港這一制。釋法使中央牢牢掌握對香港行政立法的控制權，「第二支管治隊伍」的公開化，對基本法規定香港自治範圍的內部事務，中聯辦官員毫不忌諱公然指手劃腳，大陸的暴發戶和惡質文化對香港肆意踐踏，看來香港告別過去文明與安和樂利的日子已不遠了。 "
摘編：李華
責編：雨涵
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