Mental health measures for the staff of nuclear research and development institution mobilized in dealing with residents during the nuclear disaster caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake

Abstract

During the first year of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, a total of about 45,000 employees of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) left their original workplaces to engage in telephone counseling, assistance of temporary return, and environmental monitoring. In particular, the staff who worked on the telephone counseling service, which directly contacted the residents, suffered from the stress associated with emotional labor. Systematic mental health care to the staff who engaged in these tasks was provided them in the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories of the JAEA. This paper considers this activity as a concrete example of "support for supporters" and discusses the mental health of the staff who provide support to the residents in a nuclear disaster.