Nuclear labor issues exist within the international nuclear power industry and the nuclear weapons production sector worldwide, impacting the lives and health of laborers, itinerant workers and their families. A subculture of frequently undocumented workers do the dirty, difficult, and potentially dangerous work shunned by regular employees. They are called in the vernacular Nuclear Nomads, Bio-Robots, Luminizers, Glow Boys, Radium Girls, the Fukushima 50, Liquidators, Atomic Gypsies, Gamma Sponges, Nuclear Gypsies, Genpatsu Gypsies, Nuclear Samurai and Jumpers. When they exceed their allowable radiation exposure limit at a specific facility, they often migrate to a different nuclear facility. The industry implicitly accepts this conduct as it cannot operate without these practices. The World Nuclear Association states that the transient workforce of "nuclear gypsies" – casual workers employed by subcontractors – has been "part of the nuclear scene for at least four decades." Existing labor laws protecting workers' health rights are not always properly enforced. Records are required to be kept, but frequently they are not. Some personnel were not properly trained resulting in their own exposure to toxic amounts of radiation. At several facilities there are ongoing failures to perform the required radiological screenings or to implement corrective actions. Many questions regarding working conditions for these nuclear workers go unanswered, and with the exception of a few whistleblowers, the vast majority of laborers – unseen, underpaid, overworked and exploited – have few incentives to share their stories. The median annual wage for hazardous radioactive materials removal workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was $37,590 in 2014 – $18 per hour. A 15-country collaborative cohort study of cancer risks due to exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation, involving 407,391 nuclear industry workers showed a significant increase in cancer mortality. The study evaluated 31 types of cancers, primary and secondary.
Uranium mining and milling
Canada In 1942 thirty indigenous Dené men were recruited to mine uranium, locally known as "the money rock" for three dollars per day at the Port Radium mine. By 1998, 14 of these workers had died of lung, colon and kidney cancers, according to the North West Territory's Cancer Registry. The Dené were not told of the hazards of mining uranium, and breathed radioactive dust, slept on the ore, and ate fish from the tailings ponds. According to declassified U.S. documents, Ottawa was the world's largest supplier of uranium at that time, and the United States was the biggest buyer. In subsequent decades, thousands of First Nations miners were not warned of the risks.
Namibia
Namibia's Rössing Uranium Mine is the longest-operating open-pit uranium mine, and one of the largest in the world. The company is owned and operated by Rio Tinto, one of the world's largest mining groups, and Rössing Uranium Limited. The uranium mill tailings dam has been leaking for a number of years, and on January 17, 2014, a catastrophic structural failure of a leach tank caused a major spill. The France-based laboratory, Commission de Recherche et d'Information Indépendantes sur la Radioactivite (CRIIAD) reported elevated levels of radioactive materials in the area surrounding the mine. There have been numerous reports published on labor and human rights conditions at the mine. Workers were not informed of the dangers of working with radioactive materials and the health effects thereof. The Director of Labor Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI), Hilma Shindondola-Mote, and mine employees asserted that Rössing did not provide them with an explanation of health problems from exposure to uranium.
Malawi At the open cut Kayelekera uranium mine near Karonga, Malawi (Africa), a mine employee, Khwima Phiri, was killed on July 20, 2013. He was struck in the chest and killed while inflating a wheel. There have been allegations of radiation-induced diseases among the mine workers and nearby residents. The Malawi government stated to be unable to verify these due to a lack of monitoring equipment. On June 19, 2011, a truck at the mine caught fire, killing the driver. On September 23, 2010, workers were ordered to work despite the fact that the mine could not provide them with dust masks to protect them against radioactive materials.
New Zealand and Australia The American and British demand for large quantities of uranium to use in nuclear weapons initiated New Zealand's uranium survey during WWII. In 1944 in Wellington, geologists and physicists assembled two exploration teams to survey the South Island, particularly the granite deposits and black beach sand areas. In 1945, Fiordland, Milford Sound, Nancy Sound and other locations were surveyed, resulting in the December 7, 1945 NZ Atomic Energy Act granting full ownership of any discovered radioactive elements - however not to the indigenous peoples whose ancestral lands contained these materials. In 1955, another rich uranium deposit was discovered by prospectors Frederick Cassin and Charles Jacobsen. In the following years prospectors traveled through rainforests and other terrain with Geiger counters, jackhammers and drills. These workers were exposed to unsafe levels of radiation through exposure to and inhalation of dust. In Australia, uranium mining was no less unrestrained than in New Zealand. At the Nabarlek, Rum Jungle, Hunter's Hill, Rockhole and Moline mines, gamma radiation exceeded safe levels by 50% causing chronic health problems for miners and workers.
United States
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