My favourite blogger of the moment, Ex-SKF, links to an interesting Guardian article on the cleanup at Fukushima. It’s long but worth reading for the details about the working conditions and who is doing what. Here’re just a few bits that caught my attention:

In the aftermath of the 11 March disaster, Tepco called on major construction and maintenance companies to help. Those firms in turn hired workers from a sprawling network of 600 contractors of varying expertise and reputation.

For the time being Iwaki-Yumoto will comprise three disparate communities – about 30,000 locals, 2,000 plant workers and 1,000 people evacuated from towns and villages near Fukushima Daiichi.

The presence of so many contractors, and the sheer number of men, has led to fears that not all are observing health and safety regulations.

One restaurateur complained of workers returning in the evenings still wearing their uniforms, even down to the boots they wear inside the plant’s grounds.

…

Toshiyuki Sasaki, an employee at a construction firm in Hokkaido, is one of the better-paid contract workers who have made Iwaki-Yumoto their temporary home.

He is earning twice his monthly salary of 350,000 yen clearing debris from in front of the No 3 reactor, preparing it for the arrival of a 700-tonne crane that will erect a huge steel shroud over the unit to prevent further radiation leaks.

“I’m not allowed inside the reactor itself, and I work for just one or two hours a day,” says Sasaki as he drinks a cold beer at a local restaurant. “If my reading reaches 40mSv for the a year, I have to leave for good.”

Sasaki, like other machinery operators, spends his shift inside crane and digger cabins, the only way they can clear dangerously radioactive debris.

…

“We are very careful,” he says. “If my dosimeter hits a certain level during a single shift, I have to get out. But that hasn’t happened yet.”

Not all of the firm’s staff share his optimism. About half the company’s employees have refused to work at the plant at the pleading of their families.

All of the men who spoke to the Guardian said they believed the most immediate threat to their health came not from radiation but from hours spent wrapped in masks, goggles and protective suits sealed tight with tape at the ankles, wrists and neck. “Radiation doesn’t bother me, but I am worried about falling ill because of the heat,” says a 34-year-old man from Osaka who declined to give his name. “It is unbelievably hot inside those suits. I know of several people who have been taken ill on the job.”

The food, meanwhile, has improved since the early days of the crisis, when Tepco and the government were criticised for not providing workers with enough to eat and drink…

…

At 8am they begin the first of two 90-minute shifts at Fukushima Daiichi, separated by a break of similar length. Radiation exposure and heat bring their working day to an end by early afternoon.

Rune gave the Guardian a rare insight into working conditions inside the plant.

As he leaves his place of work for his 90-minute break, he must remove his cotton gloves before opening a door into a second room, where he takes off two pairs of rubber gloves and strips down to his underpants. In a third room, he is scanned for radiation. If he gets the all clear, he is given a new uniform and underwear. The process is repeated again after his second 90-minute shift of the day.

“It is so hot there at the moment, we have to take lots of breaks, so I don’t think this will be done by January,” he says, referring to Tepco’s self-imposed deadline for stabilising the plant. “That said I have seen signs of progress, like the treatment of contaminated water.”

He is part of the team of 25 men removing and packing 23,000 firefighters’ uniforms dumped near reactors No 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the first chaotic days of the crisis, when three of the plant’s six reactors suffered core meltdowns. One group retrieves the uniforms, which he collects by truck and drops off for another crew to sort and pack before they are taken away for disposal.

“We don’t have any contact with the Tepco engineers or technicians,” he says. “My company is about six places down the pecking order.”

via Fukushima cleanup recruits ‘nuclear gypsies’ from across Japan | Environment | The Guardian.

23,000 firefighters’ dumped uniforms! Woah!

Tags: Fukushima, Guardian, nuclear crisis