Tuesday, March 29, 2011

君らは素人か - Are you guys amateur?

福島原発で東電工社員3人が被曝したというニュースを聞いて耳を疑った。自前の靴で原子炉建屋内に入って水たまりに浸かったと言うではないか! 以前から福島は管理が甘い、事故も多いと言われてきたが、この事故はずさんと言う以外に言葉が見つからない。
消防士にしても、電気工事士にしても、それぞれの作業服で来るかも知れないが、放射能の防護コスチュームを髪の毛からつま先までチェックし徹底して任務に送り出すのがイロハのイであることは子供でも分かる。 下請け業者は面倒は見ないといういい加減さがしきたりか?
そして続きは週末の2号炉水溜まりでの危険濃度放射能の騒ぎだ。29億ベクレル/cm3ものヨウ素134を検出した土曜の測定は、実は物質を取り違えコバルト56かも知れないと修正し、最終的にはセシウム134だったというのだ。唖然・・・
職員が決死の努力を続けているという報道に頭は下がるが、危機管理行動がいろいろ綻びを見せるのは、組織に本質的な問題があるということだ。
「リスクを低く見積もって対策を遅らせてきた東電」と ル・モンド紙は書き、「天災ではなく人災」と指摘する関係者の声を伝えている。それが事実のように聞こえる。


I could not believe my ears when I heard the news of 3 workers of Todenko who were exposed to radiation in one the the reactor buildings in Fukushima plant. Two of them went in the facility with their own low shoes and got wet walking in the puddle! It has been rumored that this plant is loose in administration and that they had many minor accidents and failures for years. No words can be found for this accident except sloppiness.
Firemen or electric engineers may come for operations in their own uniform, but the order to thoroughly check and ensure them in a radiation-proof costume from the tiptoes to the top of the hair before sending them out to the battle field is the very first step that must be found in the manual even for beginners. Or Tepco does not care the subcontractors?

And then, the fuss of their measurement of extremely dangerous 2.9 billion becquerels of iodine-134 per cm3 Saturday. They later informed that they were mistaken identifying the radioactive component and it could be cobalt-56 instead of iodine-134. Early in Sunday morning they finally amended it to be cesium-134 with 3-digit lower level. Dumbfounded...

I really appreciate the employees’ continued and devoted effort risking their lives, but as the failures pop out one after another in their risk management, it means the problem is essentially in their management of system and organization.
“They estimated the foreseeable risk level too low and delayed the countermeasures” writes Le Monde with the comment of a related specialist saying “ the catastrophe was provoked by human carelessness rather than by nature”. It appears they reflect the reality...

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