Stricken Japan nuke plant struggles to keep staff

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By YURI KAGEYAMA

TOKYO (AP) - Keeping the meltdown-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in northeastern Japan in stable condition requires a cast of thousands. Increasingly the plant's operator is struggling to find enough workers, a trend that many expect to worsen and hamper progress in the decades-long effort to safely decommission it.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant that melted down in March 2011 after being hit by a tsunami, is finding that it can barely meet the headcount of workers required to keep the three broken reactors cool while fighting power outages and leaks of tons of radiated water, said current and former nuclear plant workers and others familiar with the situation at Fukushima.

Construction jobs are already plentiful in the area due to rebuilding of tsunami ravaged towns and cities. Other public works spending planned by the government, under the "Abenomics" stimulus programs of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is likely to make well-paying construction jobs more abundant. And less risky, better paid decontamination projects in the region irradiated by the Fukushima meltdown are another draw.

Some Fukushima veterans are quitting as their cumulative radiation exposure approaches levels risky to health, said two long-time Fukushima nuclear workers who spoke to The Associated Press. They requested anonymity because their speaking to the media is a breach of their employers' policy and they say being publicly identified will get them fired.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130523/DA6EUCDO1.html

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In this Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011 file photo, workers in protective suits and masks wait to enter the emergency operation center at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station in Okuma, Japan. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant that melted down in March 2011 after being hit by a tsunami, is finding that it can barely meet the headcount of workers required to keep the three broken reactors cool while fighting power outages and leaks of tons of radiated water, said current and former nuclear plant workers and others familiar with the situation at Fukushima. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, Pool)

[Katashi_itto]

1. Bring the military in.

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. They should be among the highest paid jobs in the country

But of course they are not
"
And less risky, better paid decontamination projects in the region irradiated by the Fukushima meltdown are another draw".

But hey, Tokyo electric has a business to run. Gotta watch that bottom line, and executive pay...

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Tepco management needs to have their office in Fukishima, close to the plants.

I am waiting for the gov. there to offer prisoners a get out of jail free opportunity.

[liberal N proud]

4. You would have to be hard up to take that job to start with

It is a death sentence