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.

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