I Want For You To Know What Kind Of Thing A Genpatsu (Nuclear Power Plant) Is - Parts VII ~ XI

By: Norio Hirai（平井 憲夫）

1996

VII. The Sea of Runaway Radioactivity

Genpatsu inspections are often conducted during the winter. When inspections are done, tons and tons of radioactive water flow into the sea. Frankly, you can’t eat the fish caught around Japan’s coast without worrying about radiation because of radioactive contamination.

The discharge of radioactive water into the sea is also done during the cooling of genpatsus. Genpatsus produce enormously high heat. In Japan it is cooled using seawater, this is the radioactive thermal water flow, which at times produces 10 tons of the water per minute. It is then dumped back to where it came from, the sea.

During the panic of a genpatsu accident, the prefectures declare “safety” as the power company responsible, hide issues even further. The indifferent nature in the majority of the public is the reason the sea has become polluted and the problem not being taken care of.

When washed, protective clothing full of radioactive particles also drain to sea. Contamination in the drains is very high. In similar areas, fish farming also takes place. People conscious of safe foods should hold consciousness in genpatsus as well. If this continues, the basic right of choosing to eat safe food will end.

Several years ago, during a court briefing pertaining to the Ishikawa Prefecture, Shiga Genpatsu Injunction, an 80-year-old woman peddler spoke about her experience. “I didn’t know about genpatsus till now. Today, when I brought some seaweed to a regular customer, she said ‘Sorry, but I won’t be able to buy from you anymore because the Shiga genpatsu has started operating.’ For the first time I realized the effects of a genpatsu. What should I do?” The lady was lost. Unaware to the public, the seas surrounding Japan are continuously being polluted by radiation.

VIII. Internal Radiation Exposure, The Most Frightening

Everything in the building of a genpatsu becomes radioactive. Everything becomes a radioactive substance emitting radiation. No matter how thick the iron is, radiation can pierce through it. It is horrific to be exposed externally, but the most horrific is internal exposure.

Dust, which is everywhere, has been bathed in radioactivity in the genpatsus, which then goes airborne. When that airborne dust enters your mouth, nose, etc., you are then internally exposed. Tidying up and cleaning a genpatsu is when internal exposure is at its most. It is worse than external exposure, directly affecting the inner organs of the body.

Radioactive substances that enter the body are usually discharged in about three days with sweat and urine. However, no matter how minor the internal exposer, the heavy-metal characteristics make it impossible to completely exit the body, accumulating within. This is horrific. If you’ve ever visited a genpatsu, you will notice that the area for the general public is really clean and the staff proudly says “Isn’t it clean?” Of coarse it’s clean… If not the dust would irradiate visitors!

I have had internal exposure more than 100 times, so I have cancer. When I was diagnosed with cancer, I was so frightened of dying I wondered, “What should I do?” but something my mother said came to mind. She said, “There’s nothing greater than death.” So with the time I had left, I have decided to reveal all that I know about genpatsus.

VIV. A Completely Different Work Environment From The Norm

Radioactivity accumulates. No matter how minor, if it’s 10 years then it accumulates for those 10 years. This is frightening. The government and industry have taken the stance; everything is fine if you do not exceed the 50 mSv-per-year limit.

For example, it takes about three months to complete a regular inspection, when divided you get the daily dose. However, there are areas with high radiation where you are limited to work only 5 to 7 minutes. Since nothing can be accomplished within that amount of time, they have you work the sum of 3 thru 7 days exposer-limit-total all at once. Work procedures like this should never take place, but it is a solution to accomplish 10 or 20 minutes of work in those areas. You are on the better side if you’re aware that workloads as such will give you leukemia or some type of cancer… The power companies never inform you of these hazards.

In one case, a large bolt attached to a machine became loose and needed tightening while the genpatsu was in operation. Because of the horrendous amounts of radiation when the genpatsu was running, we provided 30 workers to tighten that bolt. In a single line, “Ready. Get set. Go!” They would run 7 meters to where the loose bolt was, counting “One… Two… Three…” the alarm would go off and they would run back relaying the next person. There were some who didn’t know where the wrench was and their time was already up. Just to tighten that bolt ended up costing close to 4 million yen, the amount of using 160 workers per day.

You may be wondering why the genpatsu wasn’t stopped and then repaired. If the plant stops for a day, the loss will be as much as 100 million yen, so the power company tries not to stop if possible. Radioactivity is a very dangerous thing, but to an industry, profit is more important than human life.

X. “Absolutely Safe” 5 Hours Of Brainwashing Education

Workers in places with radioactivity, such as genpatsus, are called “radiation-workers.” Up till now, the radiation-worker population is roughly 270,000; the majority being the ones involved with genpatsu operations. Even now there are about 90,000 people that work at genpatsus. These people are doing the annual regulatory inspection work, supporting the genpatsus, while being exposed day after day.

First-time genpatsu workers go through 5 hours of Radiation Management Education. The main purpose of this education is to relieve their anxiety. The educators never bring up the dangers of genpatsus. They are taught subjects like: the government controls exposure standards so the limits are absolutely safe, no need for concern; there are anti-nuclear activist in the world that claim you can get cancer, leukemia, etc. from being exposed to radiation, but these are “absolute damned lies.” Just have faith in the things the government has defined and you will be fine… Brainwashing like this goes on for 5 hours.

The power companies toward the people of the region perform “nuclear safety” brainwashing too. For instance, celebrities are called to give speeches and are used in TV commercials, cooking classes are held in cultural organization circles, and splendid color-printed flyers are added to newspapers. So when an accident occurs and you become uneasy, you are brainwashed immediately by such safety propaganda assuming “life will be hard if we stop relying on electricity generated by genpatsus.”

I myself as an onsite supervisor for nearly 20 years, performed “brainwashing” mind control as much as Shoko Asahara, the Aum Cult leader. I have no idea how many people I killed. I am often asked if insecurity towards safety exist in the workers onsite. They are not informed about the dangers of radiation and exposer so the majority of the workers have no fear. Even if their health degrades they never associate it with their work at a genpatsu. All workers are exposed everyday as they work. An important supervisorial function is to prevent the worker and the people outside from knowing. If info about exposure leaks to the worker and the people outside, you are disqualified as an onsite supervisor. That’s genpatsu onsite for you.

I worked like this for a long time, everyday I just couldn’t stand it anymore. At night I relied on alcohol looking for an escape, then started drinking more and more. I started questioning myself over and over again “For what, for whom do I have to lie and live like this everyday?”

Then I realized, because of working 20 years at a genpatsu, I was tattered physically from radioactive exposer…

XI. Who Is Going To Help?

There was also a serious injury at the Fukushima genpatsu run by TEPCO. A field worker slashed his forehead with a grinder. Blood gushed out, it was a serious injury vying every second, an ambulance was called in immediately and the injured was carried out. However, the injured person was covered with radioactivity. The power company panicked too, they never took the protective clothing off nor washed the body of the injured person. The paramedics had no knowledge of radioactive contamination so the injured person was carried to the hospital with high radioactivity. The rescue workers who touched the injured person were contaminated; the ambulance, doctors, nurses, and other patients being touched by the nurses were contaminated. When the injured worker was carried out, at that point contamination was extended, it became a serious situation as the town started to panic. Everyone desperately just wanted to help the badly injured and bleeding person somehow, because radioactivity is totally invisible, no one noticed that the person was contaminated with radioactivity.

It is so serious for even one person alone in a situation like this. What happens if many of the residents were contaminated by radioactivity because of a major nuclear accident? Can you imagine? It is not about “Their problem, not mine.” It is everyone’s problem, everyone in the whole country.

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