Japan's minister in charge of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster said Monday that under a revised evacuation plan announced over the weekend, some residents may begin to return home in stages as early as next April.
Japan
's
minister in charge of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster said
Monday that under a revised evacuation plan announced over the weekend, some residents
may begin to return home in stages as early as next April.
The revised evacuation zones are the first concrete step by the government to
bring back to normal the area affected by the nuclear disaster as it shifts
focus from the short-term emergency to a clean-up that could last 30-40 years
under estimates by the government and independent experts.
Goshi Hosono, who also serves as
Japan
's
environment minister, said at a news conference that after Friday's
announcement that the nuclear reactors had reached cold shutdown, attention was
now turning to decontamination at the site and a blueprint for allowing some
residents to return home.
Under cold shutdown, the three reactors that had been active at the time of the
accident are now deemed to be safely cooled down with little or no continuing
radiation releases.
"After nine months since the painful tragedy, we're finally able to move
on to the next level," he said.
Hosono said the return of some residents to their homes may take place in
stages from April, saying the extra time was needed as quake-hit infrastructure
in some areas abandoned since the March 11 crisis had not been repaired.
"We will need to study each case to see how quickly residents can return
to towns and villages that have not been inhabited for over a year, with the
earliest being in April," Hosono said.
On Sunday Hosono presented the government's plan to reclassify current
evacuation zones around the plant into three categories--off-limit areas with a
radiation exposure of over 50 millisieverts per year, a restricted area with 20
to 50 millisieverts, and places under 20 millisieverts for which the evacuation
advisory will be lifted. The government has set a basic exposure limit of 20
millisieverts per year, 20 times higher than under normal conditions.
Friday's announcement by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda brought severe criticism
from
Fukushima
residents, who said that the declaration was made even though the reactors
remain so highly radioactive that after nine months no one has been able to
check the state of the fuel rods inside.
Separately on Monday, an independent panel of experts endorsed the government's
new post-Fukushima estimates that nuclear power is actually 50% more expensive
than previously believed, taking into account the costs of the cleanup. The new
figure is at Y8.9 per kilowatt-hour, compared with an estimate of Y10.7/kwh for
natural gas-fired plants and Y30.0/kwh for solar power.
The nuclear figure includes only cleanup costs that have been calculated so far
but given that there are still large unsettled expenses related to the
accident, that figure may rise further, government officials have said.
Διαβάστε ακόμα
Τρι, 24 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024 - 19:58
Τρι, 24 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024 - 19:54
Τετ, 18 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024 - 18:32
Τετ, 18 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024 - 18:27
Τρι, 17 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024 - 20:01