Japan's 'nuclear gypsies' face radioactive peril at power plants

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-nuclear-gypsies-20111204,0,347252.story

Reporting from Namie, Japan—
Kazuo Okawa's luckless career as a "nuclear gypsy" began one night at a poker game.

The year was 1992, and jobs were scarce in this farming town in the shadow of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. An unemployed Okawa gambled and drank a lot.


He was dealing cards when a stranger made him an offer: manage a crew of unskilled workers at the nearby plant. "Just gather a team of young guys and show up at the front gate; I'll tell you what to do," instructed the man, who Okawa later learned was a recruiter for a local job subcontracting firm.

Okawa didn't know the first thing about nuclear power, but he figured, what could go wrong?

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1. Continuing the uncountably old tradition of male employment.

Welcome to the twenty-first century's solution to overpopulation. All we need to do is remove all our safety precautions from industry. The population will go right down.