24 August 2012, the Japanese Labor Ministry is sounding a warning; Japan is running out of qualified employees for the ongoing nuclear disaster at the GE designed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Since 11 March 2011, at least 3,000 people have been working (unsuccessfully) to bring Fukushima Daiichi under control. As of March 2012, 167 workers were dismissed because they had exceeded radiation exposure limits equal to five years of contamination!!!
In Japan a nuclear industry worker can not exceed 50 millisieverts of radiation per year and 100 millisieverts in 5 years. The 167 employees dismissed in March of this year, were exposed to more than 100 millisieverts in one year!
But wait, there’s more! For the three months following April 2012, 79 workers were exposed to more than 20 millisieverts!
The numerous contractors working for Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo) say they can not find enough new workers to replace the volume of workers leaving due to contamination.
But some contractors have set their own stricter radiation exposure standards, they are concerned with their employees health and maintaining their employability.