The nearly 7,000 workers toiling to decommission the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi after they were destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 face a daunting task (described in our previous blog). Recent events have led to questions about the working conditions and safety of these workers.
On January 16, 2015, the local labor bureau instructed the utility that owns the plants to reduce industrial accidents. (The site experienced 23 accidents in fiscal year 2013 and 55 so far this fiscal year.) Three days later, on January 19, a worker fell into a water storage tank and was taken to the hospital. He died the next day, as did a worker at Fukushima Daini when his head got caught in machinery. (Fukushima Daini is nearby and was less impacted by the 2011 event. It is now being used as a staging site for the decommissioning work at Fukushima Daiichi.)
Although looking at all industrial accidents will provide the most effective solutions, often digging into just one in greater detail will provide a starting point for site improvements. In this case, we will look at the January 19 fall at Fukushima Daiichi to identify some of the challenges facing the site that may be leading to worker injuries and fatalities.
A Cause Map, or visual form of root cause analysis, is begun by determining the organizational impacts as a result of an incident. In this case the worker fall impacted the safety goal due to the death of the worker. The environmental goal was not impacted. (Although the radiation levels at the site still require extensive personal protective equipment, the incident was not radiation-related.) Workers on site have noted difficult working conditions, which are thought to be at least partially responsible for the rise in incidents, as are the huge number of workers at the site (itself an impact to the labor/time goal). Lastly, local organizations have raised regulatory concerns due to the high number of incidents at the site.
An analysis of the issues begins with one impacted goal. In this case, the worker death resulted from a fall into a ten-meter empty tank. The worker was apparently not found immediately (though specific timeline details and whether or not that impacted the worker’s outcome have not been released) because it appears he was working alone, likely due to the massive manpower needs at the site. Additionally, the face masks worn by all workers (due to the high radiation levels still present) limit visibility.
The worker was checking for leaks at the top of the tank, which is being used to store water used to cool the reactors at the site. There is a general concern about lack of knowledge of workers (many of whom have been hired recently with little or no experience doing the types of tasks they are now performing), though again, it’s unclear whether this was applicable in this case. Of more concern is the ineffective safety equipment – apparently the worker did not securely fasten his safety harness.
The reasons for this, and the worker falling in the first place, are likely due to worker fatigue or lack of concentration. Workers at the site face difficult conditions doing difficult work all day (or night) long, and have to travel far afterwards, as the surrounding area is still evacuated. Reports of mental health issues and fatigue in these workers has led to the opening of a new site providing meals and rest for these workers.
These factors are likely contributing to the increase in accidents, as is the number of workers at the site, which doubled from December 2013 to December 2014. Local organizations are still calling for action to reduce these actions. “It’s not just the number of accidents that has been on the rise. It’s the serious cases, including deaths and serious injuries that have risen, so we asked Tokyo Electric to improve the situation,” says Katsuyoshi Ito, a local labor standards inspector.
In addition to improving working conditions, the site is implementing improved worker training – and looking at discharging wastewater instead of storing it, which would reduce the pieces of equipment required to be monitored and maintained. Improvements must be made, because decades of work remains before work at the site will be completed.
Click here to sign up for our FREE webinar “Root Cause Analysis Case Study: Fukushima Daiichi” at 2:00 pm EDT on March 12 to learn more about how the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 impacted the plant.