Report shows 2,000 reactor workers had been exposed to radiation exceeding permissible levels

Akahata of September 9 reported that about 2,000 workers at a nuclear power plant had been exposed to radiation that exceeded the maximum permissible dosage in 1997. Akahata found this fact in a former Ministry of International Trade and Industry report on workers' exposure to radiation at nuclear reactors.

The power station in question is the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) which recently became a major focus of attention because of the revelation of a series of cover-ups of accidents and falsification of accident reports.

The report shows that 1,969 workers absorbed radiation that exceeds the limits of 5mm Sieverts per year and that 106 of them had been exposed to radiation in one year equivalent to the average for 20 years.

Ito Tatsuya, Japanese Communist Party member of the Fukushima Prefectural Assembly, has found that these workers, who were diagnosed as having leukemia, were part of the 3,000 workers who were engaged in replacing a core structure inside a reactor.

An expert of protection radiology said it is extremely dangerous to be under high radiation-level and that TEPCO should cancel any replacement of additional equipment of the radiation-contaminated core structure. (end)