nuclear movement.
disaster.
Despite an expensive pro-nuclear propaganda campaign jointly by government and the industry, massive amounts of money paid out in bribes and compensation payments to buy OlI anyazilis. and the use of riot police and private strong-arm squads to break up peaceful protests, the tide of opposition to Japan's development program continues to The current situation Japan has 21 nuclear reactors in commercial generating capacity of 15,000 Megawatts.
All but one, the gas-cooled Tokai No 1, are light water reactors designed by Westinghouse or General Electric of the USA. Eleven are Pressurised Water Reactors (PWR) and ten are Boiling Water Reactors (BWR).
Japan is second oniv to the USA in the world nuclear energy league. Britain has more reactors, but less generating capacity.
The Japanese government, anxious to reduce the dependence on imported fuel, aims to increase the proportion of nucleargenerated energy as rapidly as possible. But technical problems, popular resistance and spiralling construction costs nave torced toem to scare dow plans for nuclear expansion several times over the past decade.
They rate of expansion which will double present generating capacity by 1985, and triple it by 1990.
By 1990 it is hoped that there will be 58 nuclear plants generating almost half of Japan's energy needs massive 53,000 Megawatts. plants are currently under construction and approval has already been granted for seven more.
From the start, the nuclear program has been plagued with technical problems. Cracks steam coolant pipes and other components, the bending of fuel rods, and leaks of radioactive material have caused long shutdowns, the usually claim are for maintenance'.
Some plants have been undergoing this 'routine maintenance' almost as thev operating. In 1979, the latest year for figures are available, average capacity factor (energy actually generated divided by generating potential) of all Japan's nukes was $9.8 per cent.
It is calculated that reactors must operate at 70 per cent of capacity to be commercially viable, but few have achieved this figure for more than a tew consecutive months Death and disease among nuclear workers According to the government's own figures, released in response to questions in the Diet March 1977, 75 workers temporarily employed at nuclear power plants had Socialist Challenge 5 November 1981 , Page 14 JAPAN's nuclear power plants are generating more than just electricity. In the 15 years since the first commercial reactor came on-stream, mounting evidence of the harmful effects of the rapidly expanding nuclear programme is fuelling a militant antiAmong the evidence which is giving increasing cause for alarm are massive increases in cancer and leukaemia deaths among communities living near some of the plants, the rapidly increasing irradiation of casual workers employed in them, the discovery of mutated plants and fish, and the high number of 'accidents which leak radioactive material into the environment, particularly the coastal waters.
Almost incidentally, there is also the fact that the nuclear programme is proving to be a commercial promoted anti-nuclear nuclear combined Nuclear worker previous ten years.
country's and five from other causes.
Li calilicil categories of employee.
Throughout permanent projecting to their training, pany until they retire.
Seven jured on the job.
For safety standards.
and hazardous work.
The nuclear companies 'routine break down more serious v. they radioactive. for have been times higher the general public, receives his reactor.
pendable workers.
Up to now.
of-work work.
labour.
it. that ITaC died of 'unnatural causes' during the There were 32 deaths from cancer, three from leukaemia, 23 due to high blood pressure, 12 from heart disease Significantly, but not surprisingly, there were no deaths recorded among full-time employees at the plants; the over, reason for inis nes in ine altierent accorded the LWO Japanese industry, employees labour contracts are considered valuable due experience, fact that they will stay with the comAlso, companies are usually oblig. ed to pay large sums in compensation if one of these workers is killed or in Therefore it is customary to protect them, although not by improving working conditions adopt the cheaper expedient of hiring subcontract and temporary labour for the dirty and industry, though, faces a unique problem. As the reactors become older, they not only frequently and also become more So despite the fact that the permitted level of radiation exposure is ten for workers in the nuclear industry than that for the each individual permitted dose atter shorter and shorter periods inside the Hence the industry needs to hire constantly increasing numbers of exthere has been no shortage ot casual labourers and outfarmers willing to take the high wages offered for a few hours They are often recruited from the poor areas of Japan's towns bv loca entrepreneurs who set up as subcontractors specifically to supply nuclear The recruits are given a minimum of instruction in satetv proceaures and most are understandably totally ignorant of the nature of radioactivity and its potential dangers.
Since work radioactive materials began, there has been a progressive reduction in the permitted dose as new data about the dangers of radioactivity became available They are not a guarantee of safety, but a compromise between the pressure to , protect workers against the harmiul ettects of radiation anc the industry's need to expose them to In Britain and the USA, the permitted dose for workers in the nuclear industry has been 5 rems/year since 1957 and 1958 respectively. (A rem is a unit measuring the amount biologically damaging energy received radiation.)
Permitted doses for the general public are much lower; one tenth of that of nuclear workers in Britain and Japan, but one thousandth USA since 1974.
The higher figure for nuclear workers is defended on the grounds they receive checks, continuous monitoring, protective apparatus and so on. Un fortunately, for Japan's workers, permitted a dose of three rems every three months, this is just not the case.
The latest figures from Japan's Natural Resources and Energy Agency show that the total received radiation dosage of all nuclear workers in fiscal 1978 (April 1978 to March 1979) increased by 60 percent over the previous fiscal year.
This increase was largely due to the increase in the number of subconworkers irradiated (up 25,362 to 34,155), and only secondarily to an increase in the average exposure per worker, which rose to 0.41 rems from 0.33 rems.
The distribution of this radiation exposure is disturbing.
The average subcontract worker received twice the dosage of average permanent employee. Moresubcontract workers bore the brunt of the high exposures - out ot a total of 1,292 workers exposed to radiation levels of between two and four rems in 1978, 1,278 were subconAt one reactor, Tokyo Electric's Fukushima No 1, the company authorised an unprecedented posure level of one rem per day pe worker after the latest of a series o mishaps and breakdowns occurred in January 1980.
Of course, as soon as a worker is 'burned out' (i.e. has received his permitted dosage), he is sacked.
® Shimane 460,000kw P Takahama Genkai P 559,000kw of in the 'public' hearina. health use ot satety. Apart from the fact that ab sorbing a three-month dose of radiacasual tion in three days is not to be recomAmended, there is no system of checks to ensure that workers do not travel from plant to plant in search of the lucrative work, collecting many times their permitted yearly dosage in a few weeks.
Led about working conditions in the nuclear industry 'Horie Kunio, describes how many of the workers he met showed symptoms of radiation sickness, such as always feeling fatigued and languid from workers whose health is ruined. like that of a 53-year-old farmer from Fukui Prefecture:
Tsuruga nuclear the months March 1975. days grateful for work and high wages provided by the power company. My daily salary was about 5,000 yen (£12). "Two worn at the Tsuruga plant: red ones and yellow ones. uniform, so I guess I was working in ex- contaminated areas. Every day I went down to the working area with a pocket radiation badge, and an alarm vas mainly radiation clean-up to have trouble with my stomach and throat, and felt sharp pains in my • Ooi ® Tsuruga 2,350,000kw 357,000kw Mihama 1,652,000kw 1,666,000kw Ikata P 556,000kw Riot police drag out demonstrators at sit-in at Hamaoka 18 March 1981 But this in itself is not a guarantee joints, back.
three rems In 1979, three books were publish- sicker.
The author of one of these books.
panies, There are dozens of testimonies the I took on temporary work at the power for the five from November 1974 cent of nuclear people were kinds of uniforms known wore a red view, counter, a . film meter. My job At the beginning of 1975 I begai Tokai GB 1,266,000kw Hamaoka B 1,380,000kw head and in the small of my Then I began to feel listless. Doctors said it was due to old age. I didn't know that the amount of radiation I had been exposed to was until members Tsuruga City Council and the Town Assembly came to examine me.
Lately I have to go to the doctor every other day, but I get sicker and I stay as still as possible at day every day.
Sometimes I feel I'd rather die.' Japan's nuclear power plants are being developed and operated by nine privately-owned electric power comwhich also run conventional plants. The unions which encompass their permanent employees support policy hiring subcontrac labour for reactor work, as a means of protecting their members.
The larger of the two main unions, ZENROREN, organises about 80 per the and supports power. few hundred employees are members of the smaller and more militant union DENSAN, which is active against nuclear power, but as soon as their views become to management they are transferred to one of the conventional these workers' point of it is a case of unintentional 'Protest and Survive', but among the unorganised subcontract workers, the number of victims continues to grow.
At the same time as the data on deaths of subcontract workers were announced, the Ministry of Health and Welfare also released statistics P: Pressurized water reactor B: Boiling water reactor G: Gas-cooled reactor Fukushima B 4,695,000kw
record - can it happen here? showing that people living nuclear power plants were suffering a significantly increased risk of dying from cancer or leukaemia.
In Mihama town, ture, the number cancer per thousand in 1974 was 278, almost twice the national average of 141. The leukaemia death rate in the same year at Mihama was fifteen, compared with a national average of There are three reactors at the site on the outskirts which started commercial operation in 1970, 1972 and 1976.
At nearby Takahama, reactors less than seven away. the leukaemia doubled in one year, from eighteen in 1974 to thirty-six deaths per thousand (i.e. over eight times the average!) in 1975.
Unfortunately, more figures on the numbers of cancer and leukaemia deaths are not available.
But if there is any satisfactory explanation of the above statistics other than the effects of constant emission of radiation into the environment, neither the government nor the industry has yet produced it.
Genetic Mutation Results of a two-year study by Kyoto University scientist Ishikawa Sadao show that wort, a plant he claims has cells and genes similar structurally to those of humans, show a significantly higher rate of mutation than normal when vicinity of the two growing inac reactors at Takahama.
He claims that the plants accumulate radioactive iodine 131 given oll into tie atmospnere oy lne nukes, and that some show cell damage after only two weeks' exposure.
The Professor report with an appeal to halt operation of nuclear facilities dangers human understood.
In addition to evidence of genetic mutation caused by radiation, various groups of scientists in Japan have collected evidence showing that seafood is being contaminated and killed in water near nuclear plants, all of which are sited on the coast.
The Jananese depend on marine products for food to a far greater extent man people or olner maustnalsed nations, eating five to six times the amount and much less meat.
seafood is harvested in coastal waters family livelihood has become much more arnicull mn recenl years. petition from huge, ocean-going factory ships and industrial pollution of their fishing grounds have fishing a precarious way of earning a living.
Now, fears that fish and other seafood will accumulate radiation in their bodies through the food chain, and a number of scares which have left them unable to sell their catches have driven many of the traditionally conservative fishing people into the anti-nuclear camp.
The Opposition Movement Although the anti-nuclear movement in Japan does not yet mobilise the tens of thousands that those in the USA and Europe do, the potential certainly exists.
Opinion polls show that a majority of Japanese have at reservations about nuclear safety; most regard it as a necessary evil, and the first reaction of residents threatened nuke town nas tenaea to be aon t bulla ll here, but somewhere else'.
Inus ine Japanese movement is characterised bv strong. militant oDposition to specific plants among the organisation.
Nevertheless, as long ago as 1976, a spokesperson of the Energy Council HCOT Fukui Prefecof Mihama, with two kilometres rate national recent Professor spiderconcludes his until the are of their nuclear whose Stiff commade the near-catastrophe at least some power near their One of the many massive anti-nuclear demonstrations ruefully admitted that 'the siting of plants is not going at all smoothly due to the ooposition trom local communities. This is the single, most serious bottleneck in our whole While that bottleneck has continued to narrow, it nas been aue more to the impact of events, such as Three Mile Nuclear power plant opponents and riot police clash at Hamaoka, Shizuoka prefecture. Island USA in 1979, than to a clear political lead from either of the mass workers' parties The Communist Party nuclear weapons, but is in favour of nuclear power, with 'adequate' safety i caulious The Socialist Party nationally does not have a clear stand either for or against, but certain SP members of the Diet are outspoken nuclear opponents, and give a lead to local struggles the near opposes Mile Island, Pennsylvania, in March 1979 caused a furore, mainly because the crippled reactor is the same design as a majority of Japan's nukes. Even before it was clear exactly what had happened, demonstrators had invaded the offices Resources and Energy MITI in Tokyo.
Mounting Fi could government to reluctantly halt operation of several of Japan's reactors.
TMI gave the потан н ow e eve recovered from. authorities have been forced to resort to desperate measures to keep their nuclear programme moving forward, and a new focus of the anti-nuclear struggle has become the ings wich must be neid belore per mission to build a new plant or reactor can be granted.
come which is Dower collDallics In some cases, the hearings have been held enome res at fe the proposed sected that residents can attend, but the case of the hearing Prefecture in prize residents to submit their opinions on te proposar to buna tne nucical plant in writing in advance, and selected out of the 3,000 or hearing have Shimane, Wing held.
though they cessful, tracted unionists.
by the reactors Pacific dumping was safe.
reporters when a are Japan's hushed-up catastrophe at than of of the Natural Agency of forced the reprocessing reported since The Japanese nuciear For this reason, the public hearto downn av it These have been blatantly rigged favourable to the millirems, affected There at Kashiwazaki, Niigata 1978 must take the The local authority appealed to so replies a mere 47 people from 17 families to attend the Hundreds of locals turned up on the day to protest this sham and about 200 entered the gallery hall, demanding to be allowed to par ticipate in the hearing AS DOL dozens of police in full riot gear forcibly expelled all the members of the public, including the hand-picked 47. The doors of the hall were locked, and the 'public hearing' went ahead uninterrupted Since Decembe 1980, provesiers gathered at Kashiwazaki, and Hamaoka, to prevent these undemocratic hearings from beWhat was particularly encourag ing about these demonstrations, even were not totally suC was the fact that they atsupport from thousands of Another issue raised by Japan's nuclear programme is what to do with the lethal radioactive waste produced The Japanese government's anplans dump radioactive waste in the Pacific Ocean has brought expressions of opposition from residents of many of the islands from Guam to Micronesia.
Last year the Japanese govern. ment sent a special mission on a tour of these islands armed with charts graphs, and survey results, ostensibly to explain their intentions and hear the opinions of the Pacific peoples.
Having heard nothing but objec tions, the mission returned to Tokyo and issued a statement thanking the Islanders for their operation, but announcing that the would ahead anvwa since they, the Japanese, were sure it An official of the Science and Technology Agency pointed out to that harmony' was important, but in the last analysis it is still 'not necessary to get the approval of foreign countries this attitude with the reaction of the Japanese authorities Soviet nuclear submarine damaged by fire (although not leaking radiation) was towed briefly through Japanese waters on its way back to Vladivostok, last August.
That action was denounced in the strongest possible terms as a breach of territorial integrity; it seems that there different standards, depending upon whose integrity is at stake.
The Tsuruga Accident The worst accident in the history of nuclear programme the radiation leak at the Tsuruga plant in western Japan, came to light last April Over 40 tons of highly radioactive coolant had gushed from a storage tank; in the company's panicked attempts to clear up the mess, more 50 workers received high doses radiation, and most of the dangerous material was dumped into LUC DUDIC SCWCSVSLCHI The incident was certainly not unique; two more radiation spills, at Oi and al the Tokai facility, have been Tsuruga plant itself has reported 31 previous accidents, and workers there have recently told of other incidents which the company tried to cover up The aspect which appalled many Japanese was that the operators of the Tsuruga Plant showed such criminal irresponsibility in trying to keep the latest tragedy secret, and then trying For example, the company claim. er one rude worker levolved in the clean-up received more than 13 but inspectors vestigating the contaminated sludge.
• coolicu to lave au sorbed 30 millirems in a few minutes - this almost a month after the spill.
already more than enough evidence to indicate that ever! nuclear facility in Japan should be shut down immediately.
And there is more than enough evidence to suggest that if it can hap pen in Japan it can happen here.
Socialist Challenge 5 November 1981 Page 15
Socialist Socialist Challenge exclusive
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NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS IN JAPAN (In Operation as of 1981)