From Japan, Bearing Witness in Debate Over Indian Point via the New York Times

Noriyuki Kitajima stepped into the cold, clear morning air of Claremont Avenue in Morningside Heights, where he was staying on a visit from Japan.

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“One quick little cigarette,” Mr. Kitajima, 45, said. The smokes, he reckoned, are an occupational hazard.

Last March, unemployed and sitting in a Tokyo cafe with his girlfriend, Mr. Kitajima felt the shudders of an 8.9-magnitude earthquake. Before long, he found himself working nearly 200 miles away at the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was destroyed.

“I would say about 90 percent of the workers at the plant smoke,” Mr. Kitajima said. “Stress.”

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