Safety standards for workers at the tsunami-hit nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture have been relaxed without any scrutiny, forcing workers to do their jobs without being completely decontaminated, it has emerged.
Radiation levels on the premises of the power station remain high, with part of the ruins of its No. 3 reactor building — badly damaged by a hydrogen explosion — emitting 900 millisieverts of radiation per hour.
An employee of one of the subcontractors at Fukushima plant said he worked there without such a special permit and was exposed to 1.3 millisieverts of radiation over a 2 1/2-hour period. Subsequent screening detected radioactive substances on the back of the employee’s head and neck, as well as those of about 10 co-workers.
They washed with special shampoo at the nuclear crisis operations center about 20 kilometers away from the plant. However, three of them were unable to completely decontaminate themselves. They tried again at a TEPCO facility but failed to completely remove radioactive substances from their bodies. TEPCO subsequently issued a certificate specifying the areas of their bodies contaminated with radioactive material, and they returned to work.
“Both TEPCO and the original contractor appear to be thinking it’s natural that we’re contaminated with radioactive substances, considering our working environment,” he lamented. “Many of us are eager to help get the plant under control, and think we can’t avoid being contaminated. But frankly speaking, we’re concerned,” he added.
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