By Robert Hunziker / Defend Democracy Press
The radiation effects of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power
Plant triple meltdowns are felt worldwide, whether lodged in sea life or
in humans, it cumulates over time. The impact is now slowly grinding
away only to show its true colors at some unpredictable date in the
future. That’s how radiation works, slow but assuredly destructive,
which serves to identify its risks, meaning, one nuke meltdown has the
impact, over decades, of 1,000 regular industrial accidents, maybe more.
It’s been six years since the triple 100% nuke meltdowns occurred at
Fukushima Daiichi d/d March 11th, 2011, nowadays referred to as “311”.
Over time, it’s easy for the world at large to lose track of the serious
implications of the world’s largest-ever industrial disaster; out of
sight out of mind works that way.
According to Japanese government and TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power
Company) estimates, decommissioning is a decade-by-decade
work-in-progress, most likely four decades at a cost of up to ¥21
trillion ($189B). However, that’s the simple part to understanding the
Fukushima nuclear disaster story. The difficult painful part is largely
hidden from pubic view via a highly restrictive harsh national secrecy
law (Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets, Act No.
108/2013), political pressure galore, and fear of exposing the truth
about the inherent dangers of nuclear reactor meltdowns. Powerful vested
interests want it concealed.
Following passage of the 2013 government secrecy act, which says that
civil servants or others who “leak secrets” will face up to 10 years in
prison, and those who “instigate leaks,” especially journalists, will
be subject to a prison term of up to 5 years, Japan fell below Serbia
and Botswana in the Reporters Without Borders 2014 World Press Freedom
Index. The secrecy act, sharply criticized by the Japanese Federation of
Bar Associations, is a shameless act of buttoned-up totalitarianism at
the very moment when citizens need and in fact require transparency.
The current status, according to Mr. Okamura, a TEPCO manager, as of November 2017:
“We’re struggling with four problems: (1) reducing the radiation at
the site (2) stopping the influx of groundwater (3) retrieving the spent
fuel rods and (4) removing the molten nuclear fuel.” (Source: Martin
Fritz, The Illusion of Normality at Fukushima, Deutsche Welle–Asia, Nov.
3, 2017)
In short, nothing much has changed in nearly seven years at the plant
facilities, even though tens of thousands of workers have combed the
Fukushima countryside, washing down structures, removing topsoil and
storing it in large black plastic bags, which end-to-end would extend
from Tokyo to Denver and back.
As it happens, sorrowfully, complete nuclear meltdowns are nearly
impossible to fix because, in part, nobody knows what to do next. That’s
why Chernobyl sealed off the greater area surrounding its meltdown of
1986. Along those same lines, according to Fukushima Daiichi plant
manager
Shunji Uchida:
”Robots and cameras have already provided us with valuable pictures.
But it is still unclear what is really going on inside,” Ibid.
Seven years and they do not know what’s going on inside. Is it the
China Syndrome dilemma of molten hot radioactive corium burrowing into
Earth? Is it contaminating aquifers? Nobody knows, nobody can possibly
know, which is one of the major risks of nuclear meltdowns, nobody knows
what to do. There is no playbook for 100% meltdowns. Fukushima Daiichi
proves the point.
“When a major radiological disaster happens and impacts vast tracts
of land, it cannot be ‘cleaned up’ or ‘fixed’.” (Source: Hanis Maketab,
Environmental Impacts of Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Will Last ‘decades
to centuries’ – Greenpeace, Asia Correspondent, March 4, 2016)
Meanwhile, the world nuclear industry has ambitious growth plans,
50-60 reactors currently under construction, mostly in Asia, with up to
400 more on drawing boards. Nuke advocates claim Fukushima is well along
in the cleanup phase so not to worry as the Olympics are coming in a
couple of years, including events held smack dab in the heart of
Fukushima, where the agricultural economy will provide fresh foodstuff.
IAEA Experts at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Unit 4, 2013 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
The Olympics are PM Abe’s major PR punch to prove to the world that
all-is-well at the world’s most dangerous, and out of control,
industrial accident site. And, yes it is still out of control.
Nevertheless, the Abe government is not concerned. Be that as it may,
the risks are multi-fold and likely not well understood. For example,
what if another earthquake causes further damage to already-damaged
nuclear facilities that are precariously held together with hopes and
prayers, subject to massive radiation explosions? Then what? After all,
Japan is earthquake country, which defines the boundaries of the
country. Japan typically has 400-500 earthquakes in 365 days, or nearly
1.5 quakes per day.
According to Dr. Shuzo Takemoto, professor, Department of Geophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University:
“The problem of Unit 2… If it should encounter a big earth tremor, it
will be destroyed and scatter the remaining nuclear fuel and its
debris, making the Tokyo metropolitan area uninhabitable. The Tokyo
Olympics in 2020 will then be utterly out of the question,” (Shuzo
Takemoto, Potential Global Catastrophe of the Reactor No. 2 at Fukushima
Daiichi, February 11, 2017).
Since the Olympics will be held not far from the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear accident site, it’s worthwhile knowing what to expect, i.e.,
repercussions hidden from public view. After all, it’s highly improbable
that the Japan Olympic Committee will address the radiation-risk
factors for upcoming athletes and spectators. Which prompts a question:
What criteria did the International Olympic Committee (IOC) follow in
selecting Japan for the 2020 Summer Olympics in the face of three 100%
nuclear meltdowns totally out of control? On its face, it seems
reckless.
This article, in part, is based upon an academic study that brings to
light serious concerns about overall transparency, TEPCO workforce
health & sudden deaths, as well as upcoming Olympians, bringing to
mind the proposition: Is the decision to hold the Olympics in Japan in
2020 a foolish act of insanity and a crude attempt to help cover up the
ravages of radiation?
Thus therefore, a preview of what’s happening behind, as well as within, the scenes researched by
Adam Broinowski, PhD (author of 25 major academic publications and Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Australian National University): “
Informal
Labour, Local Citizens and the Tokyo Electric Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Crisis: Responses to Neoliberal Disaster Management,” Australian National University, 2017.
The title of Dr. Broinowski’s study provides a hint of the inherent
conflict, as well as opportunism, that arises with neoliberal capitalism
applied to “disaster management” principles. (Naomi Klein explored a
similar concept in The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism,
Knopf Canada, 2007).
Dr. Broinowski’s research is detailed, thorough, and complex. His
study begins by delving into the impact of neoliberal capitalism,
bringing to the fore an equivalence of slave labor to the Japanese
economy, especially in regards to what he references as “informal
labour.” He preeminently describes the onslaught of supply
side/neoliberal tendencies throughout the economy of Japan. The
Fukushima nuke meltdowns simply bring to surface all of the warts and
blemishes endemic to the neoliberal brand of capitalism.
According to Professor Broinowski:
“The ongoing disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station
(FDNPS), operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), since 11
March 2011 can be recognised as part of a global phenomenon that has
been in development over some time. This disaster occurred within a
social and political shift that began in the mid-1970s (ed. supply-side
economics, which is strongly reflected in America’s current tax bill
under consideration) and that became more acute in the early 1990s in
Japan with the downturn of economic growth and greater deregulation and
financialisation in the global economy. After 40 years of corporate
fealty in return for lifetime contracts guaranteed by corporate unions,
as tariff protections were lifted further and the workforce was
increasingly casualised, those most acutely affected by a weakening
welfare regime were irregular day labourers, or what we might call
‘informal labour.”
In short, the 45,000-60,000 workers recruited to deconstruct
decontaminate Fukushima Daiichi and the surrounding prefecture mostly
came off the streets, castoffs of neoliberalism’s impact on “…
independent unions, rendered powerless, growing numbers of unemployed,
unskilled and precarious youths (freeters) alongside older, vulnerable
and homeless day labourers (these groups together comprising roughly 38
per cent of the workforce in 2015) found themselves not only (a) lacking
insurance or (b) industrial protection but also in many cases (c) basic
living needs. With increasing deindustrialisation and capital flight,
regular public outbursts of frustration and anger from these groups have
manifested since the Osaka riots of 1992.” (Broinowski)
The Osaka Riots of 25 years ago depict the breakdown of modern
society’s working class, a problem that has spilled over into national
political elections worldwide as populism/nationalism dictate
winners/losers. In Osaka 1,500 rampaging laborers besieged a police
station (somewhat similar to John Carpenter’s 1976 iconic film Assault
on Precinct 13) over outrage of interconnecting links between police and
Japan’s powerful “Yakuza” or gangsters that bribe police to turn a
blind eye to gangster syndicates that get paid to recruit, often
forcibly, workers for low-paying manual jobs for industry.
That’s how TEPCO gets workers to work in radiation-sensitive high
risks jobs. Along the way, subcontractors rake off most of the money
allocated for workers, resulting in a subhuman lifestyle for the
riskiest most life-threatening jobs in Japan, maybe the riskiest most
life-threatening in the world.
Japan has a long history of assembling and recruiting unskilled labor
pools at cheap rates, which is typical of nearly all large-scale modern
industrial projects. Labor is simply one more commodity to be used and
discarded. Tokyo Electric Power Company (“TEPCO”) of Fukushima Daiichi
fame adheres to those long-standing feudalistic employment practices.
They hire workers via layers of subcontractors in order to avoid
liabilities, i.e. accidents, health insurance, safety standards, by
penetrating into the bottom social layers that have no voice in society.
As such, TEPCO is not legally obligated to report industrial
accidents when workers are hired through complex webs or networks of
subcontractors; there are approximately 733 subcontractors for TEPCO.
Here’s the process: TEPCO employs a subcontractor “shita-uke,” which in
turn employs another subcontractor “mago-uke” that relies upon labor
brokers “tehaishilninpu-dashi.” At the end of the day, who’s responsible
for the health and safety of workers? Who’s responsible for reporting
cases of radiation sickness and/or death caused by radiation exposure?
Based upon anecdotal evidence from reliable sources in Japan, there
is good reason to believe TEPCO, as well as the Japanese government,
suppress public knowledge of worker radiation sickness and death, as
well as the civilian population of Fukushima. Thereby, essentially
hoodwinking worldwide public opinion, for example, pro-nuke
enthusiasts/advocates point to the safety of nuclear power generation
because of so few reported deaths in Japan. But, then again, who’s
responsible for reporting worker deaths? Answer: Other than an
occasional token death report by official sources, nobody!
Furthermore, TEPCO does not report worker deaths that occur outside
of the workplace even though the death is a direct result of excessive
radiation exposure at the workplace. For example, if a worker with
radiation sickness becomes too ill to go to work, they’ll obviously die
at home and therefore not be reported as a work-related death. As a
result, pro-nuke advocates claim Fukushima proves how safe nuclear power
is, even when it goes haywire, because there are so few, if any,
deaths, as to be inconsequential. That’s a boldfaced lie that is
discussed in the sequel: Fukushima Darkness – Part 2.
“As one labourer stated re Fukushima Daiichi: ‘TEPCO is God. The main
contractors are kings, and we are slaves’. In short, Fukushima Daiichi
clearly illustrates the social reproduction, exploitation and
disposability of informal labour, in the state protection of capital,
corporations and their assets.” (Broinowski)
Indeed, Japan is a totalitarian corporate state where corporate
interests are protected from liability by layers of subcontractors and
by vested interests of powerful political bodies and extremely harsh
state secrecy laws. As such, it is believed that nuclear safety and
health issues, including deaths, are underreported and likely not
reported at all in most cases. Therefore, the worldview of nuclear
power, as represented in Japan at Fukushima Daiichi, is horribly
distorted in favor of nuclear power advocacy.
Fukushima’s Darkness – Part 2 sequel, to be published at a future date, discusses consequences.
The original source of this article is
Defend Democracy Press
Copyright ©
Robert Hunziker,
Defend Democracy Press, 2018
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