Japan's Nuclear Industry

Although Japan regularly records large monthly trade surpluses, approximately 80% of Japan's energy is foreign sourced making the country extremely vulnerable to fluctuations in the price and supply of oil. In an attempt to alleviate this dependency, Japan has embarked on an ambitious nuclear program. At present, 25% of Japan's electricity is produced by nuclear fission at 53 reactors throughout the country.

However, the industry has been plagued with a series of accidents in the recent years which have called into question the safety of these operations. The latest accident occurred on August 9th in Fukui prefecture. Although no radiation was released, four workers were killed when superheated steam burst from a pipe that had gradually deteriorated from an original thickness of 10mm to 0.6mm. In 1999, workers mixing uranium in buckets caused a release of radiation in the Tokaimura power plant north of Tokyo forcing the evacuation of local residents and resulting in the death of several employees.

Web surfing on this topic lead me to an interesting article posted by the BBC concerning Japan's "nuclear slaves" in 1999. According to the article, many non-technical jobs such as cleaning around the reactors are contracted out by the nuclear power company to sub-contractors. These sub-contractors frequently hire homeless or disadvantaged people, offering them wages that are higher than they would otherwise expect to receive. The workers are then subjected to dangerous working conditions and are not educated on the risks that they are taking. Since these people are homeless, they are seen as expendible and their health woes will largely go unnoticed. An official from The Japan Atomic Power Company noted that although the company follows the national safety standards, it does not involve itself in the hiring practices of its subcontractors nor does it track the health of these temporary workers.

Another article of interest I discovered concerns the safety and training issues that lead to the 1999 nuclear accident at Tokaimura which did result in a leak of radiation. The article highlights the saftey regulations that were ignored in the interests of cost cutting, the lack of training given to workers, and the attempts to keep the accident as quiet as possible by ignoring reporting procedures and failing to give timely evacuation orders to surrounding residents.

When I lived in Miyagi, my homestay father worked at the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant located on the Pacific Coast approximately 450km north of Tokyo. I was able to take a tour of the plant and I did come away impressed with the apparent cleanliness and efficiency of the plant. However, I realize appearances can be deceiving and I don't pretend to have any expertise in evaluating nuclear power safety. What actually goes on behind the scenes and what the conditions were inside the other reactors, I will never know. However, given what I have read, my jokes about my homestay father glowing and mysteriously being able to turn on electrical appliances may not be as far-fetched as I hoped. All I can be thankful for is that there are no nuclear power plants located close to my town. Click here to see where the closest nuclear power plant to you is located.