Plummeting morale at Fukushima Daiichi as nuclear cleanup takes its toll

[malaise]

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/15/fukushima-nuclear-power-plant-cleanup
<snip>
The radiation spill was the latest in a string of serious water and radiation leaks, which have raised fears over the workers' state of mind – and Tepco's ability to continue the cleanup alone.

According to sources with knowledge of the plant and health professionals who make regular visits, the slew of bad news is sapping morale and causing concern, as the public and international community increase pressure on Japan to show demonstrable progress in cleaning up the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

"Very little has changed at Fukushima Daiichi in the past six months," said Jun Shigemura, a lecturer in the psychiatry department at the National Defence Medical College who heads of a team of psychologists that counsels Fukushima plant workers. "Tepco is doing its best to improve matters, but you can see that the situation is severe."

Shigemura is most concerned about the 70% of Tepco workers at Fukushima Daiichi who were also forced to evacuate their homes by the meltdown. They have yet to come to terms with that loss and many live away from their families in makeshift accommodation near the plant.

[Art_from_Ark]

1. While not much progress has been made at the site itself,

at least some of the restrictions for entering the 12-mile exclusion zone around the site are being lifted. For example, the town of Naraha-machi is making plans for displaced residents to return to the town by spring of next year, or 2015 at the latest.

http://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/14120

[malaise]

2. Not sure I'd be moving back home n/t

[Art_from_Ark]

5. Sure, it might be living with the proverbial sword of Damocles,

and younger people who were living in apartments, for example, might not be so interested in going back, but a lot of the older people with strong roots there want to go home.

[chervilant]

4. Some of the restrictions are being lifted?

Why? Did the radioactive contamination magically disappear? Did the Japanese government alter the levels of "acceptable" radioactivity? Are they lying about the contamination in that area NOW, or were they lying before? In short, do you trust anything they've said about Fukushima?

If so, why?

[Art_from_Ark]

6. There are various organizations taking radiation readings there

It's not just TEPCO, and it's not just the Japanese government. The Fukushima University of Medicine, for example, has also been monitoring radiation levels, as have the Fukushima prefectural government and various local governments. At any rate, a yearly dose of 20 millisieverts or less per year is considered to be the threshold for repopulating evacuated areas (for reference: Annual radiation in Denver, Colorado is approximately 13 millisieverts per year).

The radiation does not spread out in a nice, even pattern in the area; rather, the higher concentrations tend to follow the course of the prevailing winds, which tend to blow in from the ocean toward the northwest. That is why, for example, Iwaki City 25 miles to the south of the reactors has had radiation levels that have been close to normal for most of the past two years.

But even places like Iitate Village to the northwest have been showing signs of abating radiation levels. For example, the 4 diagrams on page 2 of this report produced by the Kyoto University Atomic Reactor Laboratory show that ambient radiation has been steadily decreasing since March 2011 (higher levels shown in red/orange/yellow, lower levels shown in blue/green. Unit: microsieverts per hour).

http://www.rri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/NSRG/ISP/IitateReport2013-3-17.pdf

[chervilant]

7. Thanks.

It's hard to get resources that help us research the decisions made by TEPCO and the Japanese government.

[chervilant]

8. Too bad that your resource is

in Japanese (or, too bad I'm not multi-lingual...).

[Art_from_Ark]

9. It is, indeed, too bad that the sites I have listed

are not available in English. They contain quite a bit of interesting information. The first article (about repopulating the town of Naraha), for example, includes the story of an evacuee from Naraha who is currently living in Iwaki and has her doubts about being able to move back in 2 or 3 years. She visits several places in her old town and is sad to see that so much has changed.

For example, the park where she spent much time with her family has been turned into "ground zero" for the radiation clean-up effort and much of the greenery has been replaced with steel and concrete. She visits the downtown area and sees that a store near the train station has been vandalized. Then she goes to her home (which she and her husband were buying with a sizable home loan) and says with a great sigh, "How can I come back here under such brutal conditions?"

She also visits the industrial park where she used to work, which housed 24 factories at one time but is now a ghost town, and reflects on the 2011 disaster. She says that from the high ground of the industrial park, she and other workers could see the tsunami coming. They cried out in horror as they saw the disaster unfolding.

[chervilant]

3. Yeah, those are the very people

I want moving those fuel rod assemblies. What could possibly go wrong?



(jic)