LAT: Workers suffer hardships in effort to stabilize Fukushima plant

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-workers-20110329,0,319767.story

Workers suffer hardships in effort to stabilize Fukushima plant
A Japanese nuclear official who spent five days at the plant as an observer describes spare living conditions, limited food rations and no running water on top of the high levels of radiation exposure for the now 400 working in shifts to make repairs.



Engineers check facilities at the central control room of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. (Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety / March 29, 2011)


By Kenji Hall and Julie Makinen, Los Angeles Times

March 29, 2011

Reporting from Tokyo—They sleep with just one blanket apiece anywhere there's space — in a conference room, in the hallway, near the bathroom. Because deliveries of supplies are limited, they get by on very little food: Breakfast is packages of high-calorie emergency crackers and a small carton of vegetable juice; dinner consists of a small bag of "magic rice" (just add bottled water) and a can of chicken, mackerel or curry. There is no lunch — handing out a noontime meal would be too complicated in the crowded two-story building.

These are the grueling, Spartan living conditions for workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plant who are racing to connect electric cables, repair machinery and check equipment in order to avert a meltdown at the facility 150 miles northeast of Tokyo.

A Japanese nuclear regulatory official who spent five days at the power plant as an observer on Monday gave reporters the first detailed look at what life is like for the hundreds of workers remaining at the facility.

Photos: Japan's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis

When they are pumping radioactive water from basements or repairing machinery in control rooms, the workers breathe through respirators and dress in white suits with hoods that cover them from head to toe, which offer substantial protection but are not foolproof. Even the short periods that they spend near the reactors — they work in one-hour shifts — can expose them to dangerously high radiation levels. Hundreds of workers sleep and eat in one huge room, about 6,200 square feet, on the second floor of a building a short distance from the reactor sites.

"I don't think the workers have the energy they need to work under these extremely tough conditions," said Kazuma Yokota, who heads the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency's local office in charge of inspections at the plant. The facility's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, did not immediately respond to Yokota's comments.

FULL story at link.