Protective abandonment: Risk, data, and surveillance of nuclear workers post Fukushima

Abstract

During the coronavirus disease-19 pandemic, Fukushima marked the 10th anniversary of its nuclear disaster of 2011. And although pandemic scientists around the world used technological surveillance to predict risks, the experiences from the Fukushima health crisis call into question such technological solutionism. The Japanese government and electronic companies had placed nuclear workers under intensive health surveillance for decades, but the health data rarely helped workers to protect themselves. Rather, the government has often used the data to decline workers’ claims for medical compensation. I call this contradictory consequence of data Protective Abandonment, the systematic disposal of people through the promise of protection. Data are collected through surveillance, for the purpose of risk management, but the information ends up protecting only the existing political economic systems. Crucially, data collection disguises protection and hides the unequal distribution of care. I argue that protective abandonment may become a common experience in today’s data-driven societies.