sharingwisdom
04-17-2011, 12:01 PM
https://truthout.org/work-fukushima-you-have-be-ready-die/1302159600 (https://truthout.org/work-fukushima-you-have-be-ready-die/1302159600)
Excerpt
Interview: Specialist on <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the sociologist Paul Jobin [1 (https://www.humaniteinenglish.com/spip.php?article1741#nb1)] has studied workplace conditions for workers in the nuclear industry. He offers us his analysis at a moment when those workers are attempting to get a hold on the situation at the Japanese power plant heavily damaged by the earthquake.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
We read that they are sleeping on the hard soil, that they have only two meals per day, and are rationed in drinking water. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and its subcontractors allow little information to filter out concerning workers fighting on the front lines at the <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Fukushima</st1:place></st1:City> power plant, a plant devastated by the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March. Sociologist and specialist on <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, Paul Jobin knows these places well. In 2002, while doing research on sub-contractors in the nuclear industry, he interviewed managers and temporary workers in that plant. He analyzes the current situation in the light of this experience.
...in the absence of effective protection, one uses what is called "radiation protection". In Japanese, one speaks of "management of radioactivity". That’s exactly what it is: Manage imposed collective dose administered to workers. The issue of radiation protection enters in direct conflict with that of plant safety, because the more a plant ages, the more it "showers," as the Japanese workers say, the more it must be cleaned, and the more you must ask personnel to intervene for repairs and maintenance. Hence the extensive use of subcontractors. What makes the situation in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> so unique is that nuclear power was developed in the 1970s, and the use of subcontracting during periodic shut-downs has been systemic ever since. This organization of work has dramatic consequences for the health of workers and plant safety; hence the repetition of anomalies and other incidents, even before considering the issue of seismic risk.<o:p></o:p>
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Excerpt
Interview: Specialist on <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the sociologist Paul Jobin [1 (https://www.humaniteinenglish.com/spip.php?article1741#nb1)] has studied workplace conditions for workers in the nuclear industry. He offers us his analysis at a moment when those workers are attempting to get a hold on the situation at the Japanese power plant heavily damaged by the earthquake.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
We read that they are sleeping on the hard soil, that they have only two meals per day, and are rationed in drinking water. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and its subcontractors allow little information to filter out concerning workers fighting on the front lines at the <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Fukushima</st1:place></st1:City> power plant, a plant devastated by the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March. Sociologist and specialist on <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, Paul Jobin knows these places well. In 2002, while doing research on sub-contractors in the nuclear industry, he interviewed managers and temporary workers in that plant. He analyzes the current situation in the light of this experience.
...in the absence of effective protection, one uses what is called "radiation protection". In Japanese, one speaks of "management of radioactivity". That’s exactly what it is: Manage imposed collective dose administered to workers. The issue of radiation protection enters in direct conflict with that of plant safety, because the more a plant ages, the more it "showers," as the Japanese workers say, the more it must be cleaned, and the more you must ask personnel to intervene for repairs and maintenance. Hence the extensive use of subcontractors. What makes the situation in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> so unique is that nuclear power was developed in the 1970s, and the use of subcontracting during periodic shut-downs has been systemic ever since. This organization of work has dramatic consequences for the health of workers and plant safety; hence the repetition of anomalies and other incidents, even before considering the issue of seismic risk.<o:p></o:p>
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