EngineerBob linked to an article on an expose’ by a TEPCO robot operator, along with some robot footage.

I noticed a link from there to an article on “nightmarish radiation levels”.  You really can’t combine that with this…

…many workers hide the amount of radiation they’ve received by tossing aside their personal radiation meters.

…and hope things will turn out well.

“The real radiation levels are much higher,” the doctor says, “That’s a fact.”

Higher than what?  It doesn’t say, they don’t give numbers.  But rad instruments are set up to, if anything, return higher-than-actual readings.  For obvious reasons.  I don’t see TEPCO getting away with falsifying data.  But you know my poor track record in judging their actions by our rad standards.

I’ve heard that some DOE, possibly even NRC facilities used to do that sort of thing in the old days.  As they say in the article, people who fear for their jobs will take more chances than otherwise.

We’ve also had it the other way around.  At Brown’s Ferry, some workers would take off their dosimetry and leave it to be dosed up.  That way, as “they” hit their limits, they didn’t have to do the hot work.

It will amaze you to learn that union employees were the culprits.