Fukushima Workers Not Given Proper Instruction After Disaster

There's a report out from NBC's World News: HERE talking about how immediately following radiation leaks at the Fukushima Dai-ichi facility back on March 11, 2011, that workers going in to resolve the issues were not provided with proper, safe equipment.

This is the allegations of a Fukushima worker, who says that TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power COmpany) who privately own the facility were fully aware of the dangerous situation and still chose not to provide workers with better protection OR warn them of the potential radiation concerns.

While I have no doubt but to believe this allegation, I can't help but wonder a couple of things.

If you work in a nuclear power generating facility and massive earthquake causes a massive tsunami that takes out the power AT the nuclear power plant - you have to think to yourself - Hmmmm, there's a butt-load of kaka hitting the fan.

Here's a video of the tsunami hitting the power generation plant:

If you are calmly being sent down into the bowels of a nuclear reactor to go and check it out - okay... maybe your alarm bells aren't ringing... but I'm pretty sure that the entire plant is buzzing with alarms because something bad and potentially dangerous is going on. Maybe you could also suggest you put on some highly protective gear and carry a radiation detection gauge with you to ensure you aren't getting too heavy a dose.

Of course... who knows... maybe they were told that it was no big deal... via a bold-faced lie...

But I do believe this worker... I saw photographs of people working at  the plant in the very early days of this disaster wondering just what the hell they were wearing... check out this ABC News video from March 16, 2011: HERE. At around the 30 second mark, you can see what the workers are wearing... which seems adequate, but then again... it seems kind of thin. Yeesh. 

There was apparently a lot of radioactive water that the workers had to wade through at that time.

TEPCO spokesman Hitosugi Yoshimi (surname first) says the company was unsure if there would be highly radioactive water at the time.

The worker known only as Shinichi has filed a complaint with Japan's labor office to gain an improvement in safety standards.

"From the outset there was no mention about water nor any instructions as such" says Shinichi. "We were not given any information. All we were told was to do our work, to connect the switchboards."