In a preliminary step toward rebuilding the area around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant, an evacuation designation will be lifted for some places next month for the first time since the crisis began in March.
In a preliminary step toward rebuilding the area around the stricken
Fukushima Daiichi plant, an evacuation designation will be lifted for some
places next month for the first time since the crisis began in March.
The government of Prime Minister
Naoto
Kan
also
said it will allow evacuees to visit their homes within three kilometers of the
plant, an area that has been a no-go zone in the last five months, starting
this month.
The move followed some progress in efforts to bring the crippled plant under
control, after the first stage of a nine-month roadmap stabilization plan was
completed last month. A decision on whether the evacuation status will be
lifted in other more heavily contaminated areas will be made after the
completion of the roadmap in January.
Tuesday's announcement came amid mounting criticism from local communities
about the
Kan
government's inflexibility over easing the evacuation orders. The government
has been fearful of being accused of sending people back to potentially
hazardous areas, while residents have been anxious to return home and start
rebuilding their communities.
Among evacuees, fears have also been growing that they will never be able to
return to their homes and workplaces, forcing them to start a new life in a new
place.
Such fears were also fueled by some members of the ruling Democratic Party of
Japan who called for nationalizing the land around the plant.
In the three-kilometer radius, some 1,300 people lived before the March 11
earthquake and tsunami, which ravaged the plant and triggered the radiation
crisis. Some residents have already given up hope for returning to their old
homes, but others are still committed to rebuild their life there, according to
local press reports.
A home visit will be limited to two hours. Residents will be boarded on a bus
and taken to their neighborhoods. A tyvek protective suit must be worn at all
times.
Meanwhile, the emergency evacuation preparation zone, set up between the
20-kilometer and 30-kilometer radiuses of the plant, will be scrapped next
month. "The safety of the area has been confirmed," the government
said.
In the zone, where residents are asked to stay prepared for evacuation, some
58,000 people lived between five towns and villages. But since the crisis
erupted, 25,000 people have left. While evacuation is not mandatory, pregnant
women and children have been urged to evacuate. All schools remain closed.
Over the next month, the five towns and villages will prepare to receive the
residents by restoring sewage, water supply, and decontaminating school
buildings and grounds and other public facilities. Residents who choose to stay
evacuated can continue to receive public support.
Even after the scrapping of the evacuation preparation zone, some 90,000 people
will still be evacuating, most of them from within the 20-kilometer radius.
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