Nuclear labor issues
Nuclear labor issues exist within the international nuclear power industry and the nuclear weapons production sector worldwide, impacting the lives and health of laborers, itinerant workers and their families.
A subculture of frequently undocumented workers do the dirty, difficult, and potentially dangerous work shunned by regular employees. They are called in the vernacular Nuclear Nomads, Bio-Robots, Luminizers, Glow Boys, Radium Girls, the Fukushima 50, Liquidators, Atomic Gypsies, Gamma Sponges, Nuclear Gypsies, Genpatsu Gypsies, Nuclear Samurai and Jumpers. When they exceed their allowable radiation exposure limit at a specific facility, they often migrate to a different nuclear facility. The industry implicitly accepts this conduct as it can not operate without these practices. The World Nuclear Association states that the transient workforce of "nuclear gypsies" – casual workers employed by subcontractors – has been "part of the nuclear scene for at least four decades."
Existing labor laws protecting workers' health rights are not always properly enforced. Records are required to be kept, but frequently they are not. Some personnel were not properly trained resulting in their own exposure to toxic amounts of radiation. At several facilities there are ongoing failures to perform the required radiological screenings or to implement corrective actions.
Many questions regarding working conditions for these nuclear workers go unanswered, and with the exception of a few whistleblowers, the vast majority of laborers – unseen, underpaid, overworked and exploited – have few incentives to share their stories. The median annual wage for hazardous radioactive materials removal workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was $37,590 in 2014 – $18 per hour. A 15-country collaborative cohort study of cancer risks due to exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation, involving 407,391 nuclear industry workers showed significant increase in cancer mortality. The study evaluated 31 types of cancers, primary and secondary.
Uranium mining and milling
Canada
In 1942 thirty indigenous Dené men were recruited to mine uranium, locally known as "the money rock" for three dollars per day at the Port Radium mine. By 1998, 14 of these workers had died of lung, colon and kidney cancers, according to the North West Territory's Cancer Registry. The Dené were not told of the hazards of mining uranium, and breathed radioactive dust, slept on the ore, and ate fish from the tailings ponds. According to declassified U.S. documents, Ottawa was the world's largest supplier of uranium at that time, and the United States was the biggest buyer. In subsequent decades, thousands of First Nations miners were not warned of the risks.Namibia
Namibia's Rössing Uranium Mine is the longest-operating open-pit uranium mine, and one of the largest in the world. The company is owned and operated by Rio Tinto, one of the world's largest mining groups, and Rössing Uranium Limited. The uranium mill tailings dam has been leaking for a number of years, and on January 17, 2014, a catastrophic structural failure of a leach tank caused a major spill. The France-based laboratory, Commission de Recherche et d'Information Independentantes sur la Radioactivite reported elevated levels of radioactive materials in the area surrounding the mine.There have been numerous reports published on labor and human rights conditions at the mine. Workers were not informed of the dangers of working with radioactive materials and the health effects thereof. The Director of Labor Resource and Research Institute, Hilma Shindondola-Mote, and mine employees asserted that Rössing did not provide them with explanation of health problems from exposure to uranium.
Malawi
At the open cut Kayelekera uranium mine near Karonga, Malawi, a mine employee, Khwima Phiri, was killed on July 20, 2013. He was struck in the chest and killed while inflating a wheel. There have been allegations of radiation-induced diseases among the mine workers and nearby residents. The Malawi government stated to be unable to verify these for lacking monitoring equipment. On June 19, 2011, a truck at the mine caught fire, killing the driver. On September 23, 2010, workers were ordered to work despite the fact that the mine could not provide them with dust masks to protect them against radioactive materials.New Zealand and Australia
The American and British demand for large quantities of uranium to use in nuclear weapons initiated New Zealand's uranium survey during WWII. In 1944 in Wellington, geologists and physicists assembled two exploration teams to survey South Island, particularly the granite deposits and black beach sand areas. In 1945, Fiordland, Milford Sound, Nancy Sound and other locations were surveyed, resulting in the December 7, 1945 NZ Atomic Energy Act granting full ownership of any discovered radioactive elements - however not to the indigenous peoples whose ancestral lands contained these materials. In 1955, another rich uranium deposit was discovered by prospectors Frederick Cassin and Charles Jacobsen. In the following years prospectors traveled through rainforests and other terrain with Geiger counters, jackhammers and drills. These workers were exposed to unsafe levels of radiation through exposure to and inhalation of dust. In Australia, uranium mining was no less unrestrained than in New Zealand. At the Nabarlek, Rum Jungle, Hunter's Hill, Rockhole and Moline mines, gamma radiation exceeded safe levels by 50% causing chronic health problems for miners and workers.United States
Between 1949 and 1989, over 4,000 uranium mines in the Four Corners region produced more than 225,000,000 tons of uranium ore. This activity impacted on a large number of Native American nations, including the Laguna, Navajo, Zuni, Southern Ute, Ute Mountain, Hopi, Acoma and other Pueblo cultures. Many of these peoples worked in the mines, mills and processing plants in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado. These workers were not only poorly paid, they were seldom informed of dangers nor were they given appropriate protective gear. The government, mine owners, scientific, and health communities were all well aware of the hazards of working with radioactive materials at this time. Due to the Cold Wars demand for increasingly destructive and powerful nuclear weapons, these laborers were both exposed to and brought home large amounts of radiation in the form of dust on their clothing and skin. Epidemiological studies of the families of these workers have shown increased incidents of radiation-induced cancers, miscarriages, cleft palates and other birth defects. The extent of these genetic effects on indigenous populations and the extent of DNA damage remains to be resolved. Uranium mining on the Navajo reservation continues to be a disputed issue as former Navajo mine workers and their families continue to suffer from health problems.Asian nuclear industry
India
- In March 1993 at India's Narora reactor an accident occurred in which two blades broke off a steam turbine leading to a hydrogen leak, hydrogen fire and oil fire. At this time India's Atomic Energy Commission and Department of Atomic Energy were not required to "reveal the health record of workers" nor did the DAE "monitor the health of temporary workers" nor "reveal the quantity of radioactive substances released into the environment by accidents."
- In May, 2014, six contract workers were injured at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu, India, and hospitalized for burns received during repair work. In March 2014, a contract worker was killed and two injured during the construction of a nuclear submarine at the ship building town of Visakhapatnam.
South Korea
- Twenty two workers were exposed to radiation at the Wolsung nuclear power plant, near Seoul, South Korea on October 5, 1999, when 45 liters of heavy water leaked.
- On December 26, 2014, three workers at the new Shin Kori nuclear power plant died of a suspected nitrogen gas leak. The accident occurred after a series of threats by hackers claiming they can remotely control nuclear power plants.
Japan
Fukushima
Following a large earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, three nuclear reactors melted-down at the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi power station in Japan. Despite TEPCO's ongoing efforts to stabilize, decommission, decontaminate and contain the radioactive materials, many workers have been exposed to significant doses of radiation. Both skilled and unskilled laborers work on the extensive clean-up crew, many of those involved in the most dangerous work are on short contracts. These "nuclear gypsies" or "jumpers" are often recruited from day labor sites across Japan.Contract labor in the nuclear industry is not new. Years prior to the Fukushima accident, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1999 that nearly 90% of Japanese nuclear power plant workers were subcontracted to perform the most hazardous jobs. Included in the report is the incident at the Tokaimura JCO Co. nuclear plant, 80 miles north of Tokyo, where 150 workers were exposed to radiation, including one fatality, based on the Japan Nuclear Safety Commission report. In 1999, the Los Angeles Times reported that nearly 90% of Japanese nuclear power plant workers were subcontracted to perform the most hazardous jobs. In 2010, the year before the Fukushima accident, 88% of Japan's nuclear workforce of 83,000 workers were contracted, not full-time workers. The Tokyo-based Citizens' Nuclear Information Center reported that temporary workers absorbed 16 times higher levels of radiation than regular TEPCO employees. Other sources cite higher dose levels and alleged worker abuse. The first responders to the accident, the "Fukushima 50" have refused to be photographed, as TEPCO and the Japanese government has not released their names and faces, they remain unknowable and forgotten. Keeping the cleanup crew fully staffed, 24 hours per day, on 12-hour shifts, rotating every three days is a physical and logistical challenge to an emergency that will sustain for decades during which an ongoing stream of workers is required. In a lecture given May 3, 2011 to the All Freeter's Union in Tokyo by the photographer Kenji Higuchi, "The Truth of the Fukushima 50", he cites TEPCO's lack of responsible oversight. He is of the opinion that the Fukushima 50 are victims of unsafe working conditions, not heroes, as they are depicted in the media. The few workers who have come forward, such as Shingo Kanno, describe themselves as "nuclear samurai", helping to save Japan from the spread of radiation while doing menial labor at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Upon arriving onsite, some workers were told by their managers that the level of radiation was so high their annual exposure limit could be reached within an hour. The extent of the disaster has initiated searches for clean-up workers from other countries, including the U.S. Many clean-up workers at Fukushima have found that they are not eligible for free cancer screenings from TEPCO or the Japanese government. As of November 2012, only 3.7% have been granted screenings, although many have been exposed to high levels of radiation, and all work in highly contaminated zones.
Japan's second largest construction company, Obayashi Corporation, was found to, perhaps illegally, assign homeless men from the Sendai train station to work as decontamination laborers at the crippled reactors. Several arrests were made of members of Japanese criminal syndicates, Yamaguchi-gumi, Inagawa-kai, and Sumiyoshi-sai, for arranging black-market labor recruitment operations for Obayashi. The day-labor gray markets in Tokyo and Osaka were also found to recruit homeless men, paying them $6 per hour after deductions for food and lodging. Other workers were paid as little as $10 per month after deductions. Some workers report they were simply left unpaid. Among the temporary clean-up workers who have come forward, Tetsuya Hayashi was told he would monitor worker exposures at Fukushima for two weeks during the summer of 2012. Upon arriving at the disaster site, he was deployed to an area with extremely high radiation levels, rather than the monitoring station. Although Hayashi was provided with protective gear, he thinks the agency engaged in "bait and switch" approaches to recruitment. Later he accepted a second contract job from another agency at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi plant, working on spent fuel rod tanks. He reported that the new contracting agency only paid him 2/3rds of his wages. In over 80 interviews of workers conducted by Reuter's journalists, a frequent complaint was the lack of proper training. They also cited alliances between the contractors, subcontractors and Yakuza organized crime group. While TEPCO does not make worker wages public, the interviewees stated their average earnings were between $6 and $12 per hour. Another worker to speak out, Ryo Goshima, claims his employment broker skimmed half his pay from his wages. The oversight is poorly managed by TEPCO and the Japanese government; as of mid-2013 several hundred small companies had been granted decontamination work. According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace global think tank report, complete remediation of the site is likely to take three or four decades.
Between January 2015 and March 2015 there was a ten-fold increase of workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant who received exposures in excess of 5 mSv, according to a TEPCO report. TEPCO's records show that 57 workers were exposed to 5 to 20 mSv in January, 2015; 327 workers exposed to that rate spectrum in February 2015: and in March 2015, 585 workers were exposed to the 5-20 mSv range. On January 19, 2015, a worker died at the Fukushima Daiichi NPS after falling into an empty water tank. The following day, January 20, at the Fukushima Daini plant, a worker's head was trapped between a 7000 kg piece of moving machinery and the scaffolding, killing him. At another TEPCO plant, Kashiwazaki Kariwa NPS, a worker was seriously injured on January 19, 2015. In response, work at the three nuclear power plants was suspended by TEPCO to analyze the accidents, and develop a safety plan. On October 20, 2015, the New York Times reported that Japan will begin to pay Fukushima accident disaster laborers recompense for cancers developed from participating in the clean up of the triple meltdowns and fuel pool clean-ups.