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source : Japan Times Online


Rural sports complex turns into base camp for nuclear workers
ERIC TALMADGE
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110403f2.html

FUKUSHIMA — At the edge of a no-man's land around the Fukushima No. 1 reactor complex lies a grassy athletic village that now serves as base camp for an army of workers battling the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

In regular rotation, groups are bused out to three-day shifts of punishing work at the water-logged, radiation-spewing complex. They stop only to gulp canned food and steal a nap on the floor, before they can return to J-Village, an oasis on the outskirts of an evacuated wasteland.

To recognize the dedication of the hundreds of workers risking their lives, Prime Minister Naoto Kan visited J-Village on Saturday, the second time he has ventured into the nuclear crisis zone since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami spawned the disaster.

Shifts at the troubled plant have been grueling.

"They sleep on the floor, inside a conference room, or even in the hallway or in front of a bathroom," Kazuma Yokota, an official at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told reporters last week. "That's where they sleep, with only one blanket each to wrap themselves around," he said.

Yokota said the pace has been so hectic that some workers lack clean underwear, and that officials are working to bring more supplies to them.

Work to avoid a full meltdown at Fukushima has been a laborious and complex process to restore the electrical circuitry and water-pumping systems that can keep the plant's fuel rods in cool storage.

Workers wear full-body protective gear and must pull back whenever a dosimeter alarm goes off, indicating unsafe radiation. If the exposure is too high, workers are pulled out completely and sent home.

After three days on, they get three days off at the base camp set up by Tokyo Electric Power Co. amid the soccer fields and wooded walkways of J-Village.

The former sports complex, largely spared damage in the tsunami, previously was a training ground for Japan's elite athletes while also serving as a base for local teams — even the Tepco women's soccer squad used to play there.

"There are places to sleep, eat, shower and relax," Tepco spokesman Hirota Oyama said. "It isn't perfect, but it does provide a place for the workers to pull back and get some rest before they have to go back in.

"They can eat fresh vegetables," he said. "That is something they can't do on the nuclear site."

Tepco says the camp has thorough monitoring of radioactivity and facilities for workers to wash any radiation from their clothes and bodies.

福島県楢葉町にある
ナショナルトレーニングセンター Jヴィレッジ

. . . . .



Tepco dumps concrete to plug radiation leak at No. 2
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110403a1.html


Kan visits J-Village nuclear responders, tsunami-hit city
Prime Minister Naoto Kan visits an operation base in Fukushima Prefecture to encourage Self-Defense Forces personnel and civilian workers trying to contain the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power station.
J-Village, Nahara-Machi
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110403a2.html


Iodine-131 level falls in Iitate, IAEA says
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110403a3.html

Irradiated water swamps Tepco
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110403a4.html

Relocation plan eyed for disaster areas
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110403a7.html


Fukushima Crews driven by sense of mission
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110403f1.html


Worker slams Tepco safety steps
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110403f3.html

...

Renewed national pride will shape Japan's future
MICHAEL HOFFMAN
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/fd20110403bj.html

Japanese antinuclear voices are still struggling to be heard
PHILIP BRASOR
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/fd20110403pb.html

Could Japan's tragedy help forge some overdue reconciliations?
ROGER PULVERS
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/fl20110403rp.html


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