» Interview to the famous plant worker on Twitter by Asahi Newspaper

2013/11/19

Asahi Newspaper interviewed a worker in Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant who is famous on Twitter as his name“Happy” and he has more than 87,000 followers who are eager to know what is going on inside the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Happy has been working at nuclear plants for nearly 20 years. In October, he had a book published titled “Fukushima Daiichi Genpatsu Shusoku Nikki” that documents 700 days at the Fukushima plant since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Here is the selection of interview about the radioactive water leaks and other problems, and working conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

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Q: What is behind the string of problems, such as the radioactive water leaks?

A: At the nuclear plant, we usually work in teams of five to 10. A team leader cannot stay at the site for a long time because his accumulated radiation dose is already high. For that reason, he sometimes gives instructions, writing memos and drawing charts, without going to the site. I suspect that workers have misunderstood instructions and made mistakes in the absence of the leader.

Q: What needs to be done to ensure there are enough skilled workers for the next 30 to 40 years, which will be required for the decommissioning?

A: It is necessary to guarantee long-term employment. Workers are only allowed to be exposed to up to 100 millisieverts of radiation over five years. Subcontractors pull workers from the site if they are exposed to 20 millisieverts in one year.

For example, we are exposed to about 20 millisieverts in just three months if we remove debris around a reactor building. Workers at subcontractors, who work only at nuclear plants, will have no jobs for the remaining nine months.

Yearlong employment must be secured by providing them with other tasks, such as decontamination work in low-radiation areas or jobs at thermal power plants.
<Media Report>
Insider: Fukushima work slows by lack of on-site supervision, cost-cutting (Asahi Newspaper)

Tags:news, plant workers, radioactive water, reactors, TEPCO

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