Fukushima’s Shameful Cleanup - NY Times Editorial Board

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/opinion/fukushimas-shameful-cleanup.html

Fukushima’s Shameful Cleanup
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD MARCH 21, 2014

A pattern of shirking responsibility permeates the decommissioning work at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. An increasing proportion of the 3,000 contract laborers at Fukushima are poorly trained, with little technical expertise or knowledge of radiation. They earn about $150 a day, less than what a regular construction job pays. Few are given insurance coverage. Many are destitute, recruited by ruthless labor brokers, some with ties to the mob. And the laborers are tossed out once they are exposed to the legal radiation limit. Critics point to the poor quality of the laborers for the series of large leaks of contaminated water.

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It was the Japanese government, which had been leading the promotion of nuclear power, that made the Fukushima cleanup Tepco’s responsibility. The government kept Tepco afloat to protect shareholders and bank lenders. It then used taxpayer money to set up the Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund, which provided loans to Tepco to deal with Fukushima. This arrangement has conveniently allowed the government to avoid taking responsibility for the nuclear cleanup.

Yet, as the sorry state of the contract laborers shows, the current setup is untenable — particularly since so little is understood about how to deal with the melted-down reactors, or how long it will take to end the radiation threat. It is long past time that the government take direct control of the disaster site.


A version of this editorial appears in print on March 22, 2014, in The International New York Times.

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