Fukushima_Emergency worker relates his experience at radioactive Fukushima plant

Emergency worker relates his experience at radioactive Fukushima plant
April 02, 2011

An emergency worker who was involved in restoration work at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant has described his experiences in an interview with the Mainichi.

An employee of the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the man said that he had worked on the premises of the plant for several days. He had not carried a radiation dosimeter. He wore a full-face gasmask, rubber gloves, long boots, and he wore a white outfit made of a gauze-like material over regular work clothes. He joined with several other workers to try to connect the outside power grid to the nuclear power plant.

"Full-fledged protective gear was probably running short since an earlier stage," he said. "You are supposed to have plastic protectors around your boots, but we only had something like the garbage bags that you can buy at any convenience store. We used packaging tape to put them around our boots," he added.

He said it was hard to do the job while wearing a gasmask. "Because of the gasmask and other equipment, it was very awkward moving around, and the gasmask came partly off many times. I probably inhaled a considerable amount (of air containing radioactive substances)," he said. The only person in the man's team who had a dosimeter was the team leader.

In reference to a March 24 incident where two workers were exposed to radiation while working in water that had collected in the turbine building of the No. 3 nuclear reactor, the man said: "We also faced that radiation risk." He said that because of the earthquake there were many holes on the plant premises, with water collected in them. With their vision hampered by their gasmasks, the workers could not always see where they were walking, and several workers fell into the holes. The situation was such that it took two days to finish work that normally would have taken only three to four hours, he said.

When he agreed to go to the nuclear power plant in mid-March, the man did not tell his family about it. "I felt that it would only cause anxiety to my family, so I didn't tell them about my going to the plant," he said. But before leaving for Fukushima Prefecture, he told a friend: "If I'm not back in two weeks, please let my parents know." He said he had no idea of what the situation at the nuclear site would be like until he actually arrived there. After getting to the plant, he learned for the first time that workers had removed some debris and set up some more secure footing for work there.

He said he understood why the two workers who were sent to a hospital for radiation exposure continued working even after their dosimeter alarm went off. He said at the plant, there is a strong sense of mission, with people feeling that they have to do the work because there is no one else there to do it, and that they cannot go home until they finish their jobs.

On the premises of the nuclear power plant, there was a car stuck into the outer wall of a reactor building -- possibly due to the hydrogen explosions -- and big fish and sharks washed ashore by the tsunami were lying around while birds aiming for them circled in the skies above, he said. "The gasmasks echoed the sounds of our breathing while we worked in our white outfits. It was a surreal place," he said.

On the last day of his work, he was tested for radiation exposure. It took a whole day because there were many people being tested. His test came out safe and he returned to Tokyo, where his boss congratulated him on his work. Still, he says, "I'm uneasy about long-term effects (of possible radiation exposure)."

(Mainichi Japan) April 2, 2011