CNN: Workers endure austere conditions in averting nuclear disaster

[Omaha Steve]

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/29/japan.nuclear.workers/?hpt=C2

From Jiyeon Lee and Paula Hancocks, CNN
March 29, 2011 -- Updated 1456 GMT (2256 HKT)


Hailed as heroes the workers inside the ailing Fukushima plant are risking their lives trying to avert a nuclear catastrophe.

Tokyo (CNN) -- They sleep anywhere they can find open space -- in conference rooms, corridors, even stairwells. They have one blanket, no pillows and a leaded mat intended to keep radiation at bay.

They eat only two meals each day -- a carefully rationed breakfast of 30 crackers and vegetable juice and for dinner, a ready-to-eat meal or something out of a can. They clean themselves with wet wipes, since the supply of fresh water is short.

These are the grueling living conditions for the workers inside Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. They've been hailed as heroes risking their lives by braving high levels of radiation as they work to avert a nuclear meltdown.

But until now, the outside world has known little about the workers' routine.

Tuesday, safety inspector Kazuma Yokota, who spent five days at the plant last week, spoke with CNN about the plight of the 400 workers staying in a building within 1 kilometer (.6 miles) of Reactor No. 1. Japanese officials ordered mandatory evacuations for everyone else within 20 (12.4 miles) kilometers of the plant.

FULL story at link.