Abstract
The Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster posed major psychological challenges to the nuclear plant workers. The workers had experienced multiple and complex traumatic exposures or “stressors,” including a series of workplace chaos (e.g., plant explosion, nuclear meltdown, and radiation exposure), local victim and grief experiences, and extensive societal criticism owing to public criticism toward the electric company. Studies have shown experience of such discrimination and stigma to be a key element to the workers’ mental health. As time passed by, these experiences have led to a wide range of mental/behavioral consequences, along with increase in number of retirees and personnel shortages. In the case of Fukushima, the mental health support system was not originally developed as a top-down program, and it took months to launch an official project. In order to provide prompt and comprehensive support in future events, pre-disaster planning and education will be important in designing health-care delivery and surveillance programs. The decommissioning process is expected to take decades, and it is important that the workers maintain their physical and mental health. A long-term health support system will be a key element to achieve this goal. Collaborations with the media may be helpful in order to improve their mental health by reducing stigma and enhancing social recognition and respect of the workers.
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Conflict of Interest and Disclaimers
JS, SN, and AY provided mental health assistance to TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plant workers according to official requests from Daini and a Japanese government cabinet order to the Ministry of Defense.
This work was partly supported by Health and Labour Sciences Research Grants (Research on Occupational Safety and Health H24-001) from the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan and Senshin Medical Research Foundation grant.
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the position or policy of TEPCO, National Defense Medical College, the Ministry of Defense, the Japanese government, and any other institutions.
Acknowledgments
Our hearts go out to the victims and the affected people of the Fukushima disaster. Our condolences especially go to Mr. Kazuhiko Kokubo and Mr. Yoshiki Terashima, the Daiichi TEPCO workers who lost their lives by the tsunami attacks, and Mr. Masao Yoshida, Daiichi director during the disaster, who passed away in 2013.
We are grateful to the workers of the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants for their bravery and efforts. We thank the collaborators of the Fukushima NEWS Project (in alphabetical order): Drs. Chiyo Fujii, Tatsuro Kuwahara, Shin-ya Sano, Yutaka Sato, Shoichi Tachibana, Sho Takahashi, Yoshitomo Takahashi, Yasutaka Tatsuzawa, and Hiroyuki Toda.
We are indebted to Ms. Tomoko Yamamoto, R.N. (TEPCO Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant), Ms. Mariko Tanaka, R.N. (TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant), Ms. Yoshiko Kage (TEPCO R&D Center), Dr. Hiroshi Kikuchi (TEPCO Head Office), as well as the medical team staff of Daiichi, Daini, and the TEPCO Head Office for their cooperation and support. Supports from the Division of Human Health, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, International Atomic Energy Agency, is gratefully acknowledged.
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Shigemura, J., Tanigawa, T., Aziz, A.Z., Chhem, R.K., Nomura, S., Yoshino, A. (2016). Psychosocial Challenges of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant Workers. In: Shigemura, J., Chhem, R. (eds) Mental Health and Social Issues Following a Nuclear Accident. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55699-2_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55699-2_9
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