TOKYO, July 21 (UPI) -- Fukushima nuclear plant workers were ordered to cover radiation meters with lead plates while working in dangerous conditions, a Japanese newspaper reported.
The Asahi Shimbun reported that when some workers questioned the safety and legality of covering the meters, known as dosimeters, they were warned by the man in charge, an unidentified senior official of a subcontractor of the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., that if they failed to do so, they would lose their jobs and any chance of employment at other nuclear plants.
The pocket-sized personal dosimeters, given to each employee, sound an alarm when they detect high radiation levels and register the amount of accumulated radiation to which someone has been exposed. A worker exposed to an accumulated dose of 50 millisieverts within a year must stop working and stay away from the area for a certain period of time.
The senior official at Build-Up, a mid-size construction company based in Fukushima prefecture, had the workers build the lead covers to prevent radiation from reaching the dosimeters, the newspaper said.
The president of Build-Up acknowledged Saturday the senior official had nine people work at the plant for about 3 hours Dec. 1 with their dosimeters covered by the lead plates, the newspaper said.
The workers' job was winding insulating material around hoses of a treatment system for radioactive water near four reactor buildings at the Fukushima plant, crippled by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
Tepco assigned the job to Tokyo Energy and Systems Inc., a Tepco group company, which subcontracted part of the work to Build-Up.
One worker provided The Asahi Shimbun with a recording of a meeting with the Build-Up foreman Dec. 2 at an inn in Iwaki.
In the recording, the foreman said: "Everybody who works for nuclear plants know that the limit is 50 millisieverts per year. If you get exposed to a lot of radiation, you will reach that limit in less than a year. It could run out in three or four months."
He said if workers reached the limit, they wouldn't be allowed to work in other nuclear plants.
"You can no longer make a living when the dose runs out. Do you understand that? The 50 millisieverts just keeps running out," he said.
Three of the workers quit.
