He goes by the name “Happy” on Twitter, and he has more than 87,000 followers on the social networking site eager to know what is going on inside the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
He goes by the name “Happy” on Twitter, and he has more than 87,000 followers on the social networking site eager to know what is going on inside the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Happy has been working at nuclear plants for nearly 20 years. In October, he had a book published titled “Fukushima Daiichi Genpatsu Shusoku Nikki” that documents 700 days at the Fukushima plant since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
With the decades-long decommissioning of the reactors getting under way, Happy spoke with The Asahi Shimbun about the radioactive water leaks and other problems plaguing plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., and working conditions at the crippled facility. Following are excerpts of that interview:
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We are using polyethylene pipes, a type we find at home centers, around the radioactive water storage tanks where metal pipes are required. The idea was to save time and money.
For example, we are exposed to about 20 millisieverts in just three months if we remove debris around a reactor building. Workers at subcontractors, who work only at nuclear plants, will have no jobs for the remaining nine months.
Yearlong employment must be secured by providing them with other tasks, such as decontamination work in low-radiation areas or jobs at thermal power plants.
(This article is based on an interview by Tetsuya Kasai.)