The Yomiuri Shimbun
Tokyo Electric Power Co. has secured 920 dosimeters for personnel struggling to control the crisis at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, resolving a shortage of the devices, a TEPCO spokesman told The Yomiuri Shimbun.
The company has also increased the workers' food rations from two meals a day to three, according to Keiichi Kakuta, manager of the plant's public relations department.
"The conditions they face are still arduous, but the situation is gradually improving," he said.
Kakuta has been staying nights at the plant to act as liaison between the Fukushima compound and TEPCO's head office.
The dosimeters were procured from various sources, he said, with 500 of them arriving from TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture on Friday.
Although workers now receive three meals each day, their diet has very little variety. "The food issue has been settled in terms of quantity, but [the workers] still don't have much to choose from," Kakuta said.
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Courageous, determined
Morale among the personnel at the crippled No. 1 plant remains high despite the formidable difficulties they face, Kakuta said.
"We can't say they've had enough sleep, but their morale has been kept high by media reports that deliver words of encouragement from various people," Kakuta said.
"Everybody here's working hard, with a feeling of sympathy for the troubles caused to local residents," he said.
Some of the workers at the plant, who include employees of TEPCO and other companies, themselves lost family members in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Kakuta said, "Those workers are feeling anxious about family members and their futures, but most of them have kept their feelings to themselves and have been working hard."
Of the about 400 workers who were staying at the No. 1 plant, about 100 now spend nights at the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant, which is about 10 kilometers from the No. 1 plant.
In the No. 1 plant, an emergency work room in a specially reinforced building has been repurposed as a sleeping room, but some workers sleep in corridors because the room cannot accommodate them all.
Kakuta explained that workers entering the reinforced building after a day's work first remove their helmets, shoes and outer gloves in a room inside the main door.
After passing through a second door, their bodies and equipment undergo radiation checks.
If the radiation levels exceed a certain limit, they enter a decontamination room on the first floor where radioactive substances are washed away with water before going to the makeshift sleeping room.
Though the room is protected by high-grade filters, the penetration of small quantities of radioactive material can not be prevented.
Though the workers are dealing with harsh conditions, Kakuta said the results of their efforts had encouraged them.
"When the lights were restored in the central control room, and when the water being injected into the nuclear reactors was switched to fresh water, the workers clapped and shouted for joy," he said.
The workers receive updates at group meetings held around 8 p.m. every evening. Sometimes domestic and international media reports about their efforts are shared with the workers, Kakuta said.
The workers are assigned rotating shifts. They stay in the plant for three to five days at a time, take a number of days off--this time is spent outside the plant--and then return to work.
Currently, the workers' greatest concern is how to deal with highly radioactive water.
"We can't work for extended periods, because of the danger of prolonged exposure to radiation. But we'll definitely find an answer somehow," Kakuta said.
(Apr. 4, 2011)
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