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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