Fukushima robot operator writes tell-all blog, is silenced
By Erico Guizzo
23 August 2011 Editor’s Note: This is part of IEEE Spectrum’s ongoing coverage of Japan’s earthquake and nuclear emergency. An anonymous worker at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has written dozens of blog posts describing the ups and downs of his experience as one of the lead robot operators at the crippled facility. His blog provides a window into the complex and dangerous work environment faced by the operators, a small group of young technicians who, like other front-line personnel, must approach areas of high radiation, deploying remote-controlled robots to assist with efforts to further stabilize and shut down the plant’s four troubled reactors. The blog posts, which have recently been deleted, depict the operators’ extensive robot training exercises, as well actual missions, including surveying damage and contamination in and around the reactors and improvising a robotic vacuum to suck up radioactive dust. The author, who goes by the initials S.H., also used the blog to vent his frustrations with inept supervisors and unreasonable schedules, though he maintains a sense of humor, describing in one post how he punched a hole on a wall while driving a robot and, in another entry, how a drunken worker slept in his room by mistake. The material also raises questions about whether Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the plant’s owner, is acting with adequate speed and providing enough robots and supporting resources for the robot teams. It’s ironic that, although the robots are remote controlled, the operators still have to work close to the highly damaged and radioactive reactors. There is no communications infrastructure, combining wired and wireless capabilities, that would allow the operators to do their work from a safer location. Other problems, described by S.H. in some entries, include a lack of coordination and, on at least one occasion, neglect for the workers’ safety. In one incident, a technician not part of the robot team recklessly put a robotic mission in jeopardy, driving a truck over a tether and nearly severing the connection between the robot and the operators. S.H also reports that one day his personal dosimeter began sounding an alarm and wouldn’t stop; when he asked a radiation personnel in charge about it, he was told ignore it and continue working. […] Since the earthquake hit, S.H. wrote one or more posts on a daily basis. Early last month, however, after word of the blog (hosted at http://sh-blog.at.webry.info) began circulating among Japanese Twitter users and bloggers, all posts related to the robot work were deleted (the blog included posts on other topics as well). Not long after, the entire blog disappeared. It’s unclear whether TEPCO or S.H.’s supervisors demanded that the material be removed. Efforts to reach S.H. were unsuccessful. Before the blog was removed, I used software to make a copy of it. IEEE Spectrum has decided to translate and publish portions of the posts because we consider the information to be in the public interest. The material offers important lessons about the Fukushima disaster—lessons that roboticists and others should heed if we want to be better prepared for tomorrow’s calamities. TEPCO has also been criticized for not being transparent, and these posts provide more information for Japanese citizens to decide whether the company and their government are doing a proper job. (The contents of the blog have also been available on Google’s cache, and recently a Japanese researcher republished some of the posts on his site.) […] Below are portions excerpted from nearly 50 robot-related posts that S.H. published on his blog, titled “Say Whatever I Want * Do Whatever I Want,” covering a period from late April to early July 2011. This translation attempts to remain as close to the original text as possible, as well as preserve the author’s style and tone. The translated version, however, may have inadvertently introduced inaccuracies or altered the author’s views. Also note that we tried to preserve the formatting of the text; S.H. typically writes one sentence per line, grouping them together when they’re related to the same topic. Some sections (marked with […]) were omitted for clarity or space. Please report any errors to e.guizzo@ieee.org. And leave a comment below saying what you think about the material. […]
