Workers toiling to fix the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant now have something to look forward to--fresh meals and more frequent showers.
Workers toiling to fix the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
plant now have something to look forward to--fresh meals and more frequent
showers.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501.TO), known as Tepco, said at a
press conference Wednesday it is taking steps to improve living conditions for
the roughly 200 workers at the site, as it aims to keep morale high amid
expectations that bringing Japan's worst-ever nuclear accident under control
will take many more months.
Separately, Tepco officials said that work to install the primary section of a
permanent cooling system for the plant's No. 1 reactor will start on May 16,
marking the first time workers will enter the building since March 11 when four
of the six reactors at the plant were heavily damaged by a magnitude-9.0
earthquake and ensuing tsunami.
Restoring permanent cooling functions is a key step in Tepco's plan to end the
crisis at the plant by bringing the overheating reactors to a safe "cold
shutdown".
Since the first part of the cooling system will be installed inside the No. 1
reactor building where levels of radiation remain high, Tepco said it will on
May 9 begin cleaning the air inside the building using fans equipped with
special filters.
Work on the second part of the cooling system, to be located outside of the
reactor building where radiation levels are lower, will start on May 8, Tepco
said.
The company said it aims to install similar cooling systems for other damaged
reactors at the plant, but did not say when work would begin.
Starting in early May, workers will be served fresh food packed in bento
lunchboxes, a significant improvement on their current diet of pouch-packed
food, bread and instant noodles, supplemented by vegetable juice. In the
immediate aftermath of the March 11 disasters, problems in getting food to the
site meant workers subsisted on crackers and freeze-dried food.
Living quarters will also improve. Freeing the workers from sleeping bags and
simple mats laid out on the floor, Tepco will soon bring in bunk beds for 240
people to the gym at the nearby Fukushima Daini nuclear plant, which serves as
temporary housing quarters for many workers. After mid-May, shower stalls will
be also installed at the gym, and at another sleeping facility nearby.
In subsequent weeks, prefabricated homes will also be built to house over 220
workers.
"I hope this will allow workers to refresh themselves and devote
themselves to the hard task in hand," said Goshi Hosono, a senior aide to
Prime Minister
Naoto
Kan
, who
is representing the premier at a joint disaster headquarters with Tepco. Hosono
and Tepco officials were speaking at a joint press conference.
Nearly two months after the onset of the crisis, Hosono said that time has come
to take better care of workers.
"Until now, we haven't paid enough attention to conditions for workers as
we have focused squarely on containing the accident," he said. "It
has also been hard for Tepco to improve conditions for its own workers given
the hardships faced by evacuees forced out of their own homes."
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