Japan Update: As of 21:30, 12 April, TOKYO
He went to the plant several days after the earthquake and continued to stay there. Recently, he was allowed to return home. Even at his office in Tokyo, however, he is working from early in the morning to midnight every day, and there is little time to talk with family members.
“Even if you have no health problems now, will you be in good health in the future?” his concerned wife asked him.
Meanwhile, heated exchanges took place during a meeting of a group company of Hitachi, immediately after the nuclear crisis began.
An employee of the section in charge of the recovery work at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant challenged an employee in charge of engineering management: “How many workers can you send (to the nuclear plant)? Show us your determination.”
To resolve the crisis, the employee urged the latter to share in the on-site work at the nuclear plant instead of issuing orders from a safe distance. As a result of the discussion, many engineers went into the nuclear plant.
A mid-level executive of the company recalled, “It was a difficult decision,” as the job could endanger the lives of the workers.
What workers found at Fukushima No. 1 in the beginning was a lack of adequate safety equipment and spartan living conditions.
At the start of the nuclear crisis, there was an insufficient number of dosimeters to measure radiation levels. Because of that, about 180 workers were engaged in the recovery work without them.
Their living conditions were poor. They had only hard biscuits and vegetable juice in the morning and canned food and emergency rice at night. They slept on floors during their shifts.
Currently, the workers have meals three times a day, and some can stay at facilities located away from the plant. According to TEPCO sources, every worker now has access to a dosimeter.
However, many workers say that they may have already been exposed to much radiation.
In late March, the radiation level rose in a building that is serving as the headquarters of the recovery work efforts, alarming the workers.
The building is equipped with an air-conditioning system that does not let in outside air and the walls are also thick. TEPCO has additionally replaced filters for air ventilation with new ones. It also installed 77 lead-covered boards on windows to prevent gamma rays from entering the building,
An employee of a company that has dispatched its workers to the Fukushima plant added, “We want to make the dispatched workers wear lead-lined suits.”
The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant had “whole body counters,” which measures “internal exposure,” or level of radiation in the human body. However, those counters were rendered useless due to damage from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The internal exposure is now measured by inspection vehicles.
