Posted on 03/18/2003 7:30:34 AM PST by TADSLOS
Drinking and drug abuse make the danger of accidents and theft at nuclear facilities a severe problem, activists and sociologists said Monday.
Citing what they called a crisis situation in the nuclear industry, members of Greenpeace and other groups urged the government to improve safety and security at existing sites instead of building more nuclear reactors.
President Vladimir Putin stressed the importance of the nuclear sector for defense and power needs in January, and the Nuclear Power Ministry said two years ago that it wanted to build 20 new reactors by 2020 and double reliance on nuclear power -- which now accounts for about 14 percent of the country's electricity.
At the same time, "Every day, every month, every year, we see less and less attention to the human factor," upon which "the safety of our country depends to a decisive degree," said Gennady Denisovsky, of the Institute of Sociology at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
That inattention is a risky mistake, Denisovsky and others said at a news conference, painting a picture of a nuclear industry beset by alcoholism and drug addiction -- and leadership that not only fails to address these problems but aggravates them.
"A nuclear power plant does not fight alcoholism, it propagates alcoholism," said Vladimir Lupandin, also with the Institute of Sociology.
"Alcoholics are advantageous for nuclear power plants -- they are modest and undemanding, they can work where all norms of sanitary safety are violated, and they can be fired at any time," he said.
He said drug abuse is also a problem because of the high stress of responsible jobs at nuclear facilities.
Nadezhda Kutepova, director of the Planet of Hopes activist group, said that "alcoholism is broadly common" at Mayak, a nuclear processing plant.
In Ozyorsk, the Ural Mountains city where Mayak is located, "people sitting with a can of beer on the bus on the way to work, people working with hangovers -- this is the norm."
She said that in 1999, Ozyorsk recorded the highest per capita growth in drug addiction in the country, and that the drinking problem developed in part because of the Soviet-era teaching that alcohol helps counter radioactive substances.
Last year, 45 cases of drunkenness on the job were recorded at Mayak, and 11 people were fired, Kutepova said. But she believes those statistics -- at a facility where she said workers could drink from containers of alcohol on the job during Soviet times -- are the tip of the iceberg.
She said closed cities should be opened to increase accountability.
"In closed cities there is a 'collective guarantee' system of internal relations, under which violations are simply covered up because nobody wants them to get out," Kutepova said.
"The majority of people in leadership positions protect their employees when they find them under the influence," she said.
The Nuclear Power Ministry says the industry has a very good safety record, and ministry spokesman Nikolai Shingaryov said Monday that alcohol and drug abuse are less prevalent in cities housing nuclear facilities than elsewhere.
He said abuse among employees in responsible positions is nonexistent.
I stopped at this place accross from the reactor site on US422. At 11:55am I was the only patron sitting there, eating my sandwich and a beer. Well the bartender started puring shots, beers, shots, straights, more beers, and so on, placing them at vacant seats at the bar.
All the sudden, at least 50 power plant workers bellied up to the bar. They downed their beers and whiskey like it was a college frat contest. As for food, the largest item consumed was a bag of pretzels. I watched the guy closest to me down four beers and three shots in fifteen minutes and then get in his car and drive right back to work at the reactor.
It is.
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