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174665
Mon, 04/11/2011 - 19:45
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https://oananews.org//node/174665
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Japan expands evacuation areas around crippled nuclear plant
TOKYO (Kyodo) - Japan on Monday expanded evacuation areas around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was crippled by the killer earthquake and tsunami a month ago, due to high amounts of cumulative radioactive materials beyond the evacuation zone of a 20-kilometer radius from the plant.
The government's decision comes amid persistent calls from the international community to expand the government-designated evacuation areas due to health risks of continued exposure to radioactive substances.
At present, those who live in the 20-km range must evacuate while those in the 20-30 km radius ring are asked to stay indoors.
Top government spokesman Yukio Edano told a press conference that accumulated radioactive substances have been observed in the newly designated areas due to weather and geographical conditions and while he said locals need not evacuate immediately, they should do so in around one month.
''There is a possibility that if people continue living in these affected areas for six months or one year, accumulated radiation quantities would become even higher,'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano said.
The municipalities covered under the new evacuation order are Katsurao, Namie, Iitate, part of Kawamata and part of Minamisoma. Based on radiation monitoring data, all are at risk of receiving a dose of 20 millisieverts in radioactive materials during the course of a year from March 11.
The new evacuation order was based on the standards set by the International Commission on Radiological Protection and the International Atomic Energy Agency which recommend that in the event of an emergency, the highest planned residual dose over one year be in the range of 20 to 100 millisieverts.
For a part of the town of Namie, the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has estimated that the dose for one year since the quake would exceed 300 millisieverts.
Nuclear agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said that antidisaster drills had been held in the vicinity of nuclear plants in Japan on an assumption that a nuclear crisis would last for about 10 days and that evacuation zones were designated based on such recognition.
He said ''new ways of thinking'' are needed to cope with emergencies that had not been expected, stressing that the ongoing contingency is the first case in Japanese history that requires ''a relatively long time'' before it is resolved.
Even before Monday's government announcement to expand evacuation areas, residents of Iitate, with a population of about 6,000, were clamoring for evacuation, after the IAEA said it observed high levels of radiation there and Western media began reporting about the village's plight.
Iitate Mayor Norio Kanno, whose village is located about 40 kilometers northwest of the plant and is next to Kawamata, said in a hastily convened meeting with officials, ''I regret that the entire village has to be evacuated but this cannot be helped.''
Kazuyuki Takahashi, who moved from Iitate to an evacuation center outside the village out of concern for his 3-year-old daughter's health, criticized the government's ''slow'' action.
''They should have done that from the get-go,'' Takahashi said. ''That the radiation level in Iitate village was high was something that had already been known.''
Edano said the government also designated some areas, such as the towns of Hirono and Naraha, that were not part of the new evacuation order but within the 20-30 km radius of the plant, as areas where locals should be prepared for emergency situations that could require them to evacuate or stay indoors.
Edano said this is because of the ongoing unstable situation at the plant and warned children, pregnant women and people in need of nursing care against entering these areas.
The expanded evacuation measures came even as Edano said earlier in the day the ''risk that the situation will worsen and that there would be new massive emissions of radioactive materials is becoming considerably lower'' compared with the start of the crisis.
The government is also considering legislation to make the 20-km zone legally off-limits except for people engaged in disaster relief, given the reality that some residents are returning to that area at their own risk to collect belongings.
The government's decision comes amid persistent calls from the international community to expand the government-designated evacuation areas due to health risks of continued exposure to radioactive substances.
At present, those who live in the 20-km range must evacuate while those in the 20-30 km radius ring are asked to stay indoors.
Top government spokesman Yukio Edano told a press conference that accumulated radioactive substances have been observed in the newly designated areas due to weather and geographical conditions and while he said locals need not evacuate immediately, they should do so in around one month.
''There is a possibility that if people continue living in these affected areas for six months or one year, accumulated radiation quantities would become even higher,'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano said.
The municipalities covered under the new evacuation order are Katsurao, Namie, Iitate, part of Kawamata and part of Minamisoma. Based on radiation monitoring data, all are at risk of receiving a dose of 20 millisieverts in radioactive materials during the course of a year from March 11.
The new evacuation order was based on the standards set by the International Commission on Radiological Protection and the International Atomic Energy Agency which recommend that in the event of an emergency, the highest planned residual dose over one year be in the range of 20 to 100 millisieverts.
For a part of the town of Namie, the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has estimated that the dose for one year since the quake would exceed 300 millisieverts.
Nuclear agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said that antidisaster drills had been held in the vicinity of nuclear plants in Japan on an assumption that a nuclear crisis would last for about 10 days and that evacuation zones were designated based on such recognition.
He said ''new ways of thinking'' are needed to cope with emergencies that had not been expected, stressing that the ongoing contingency is the first case in Japanese history that requires ''a relatively long time'' before it is resolved.
Even before Monday's government announcement to expand evacuation areas, residents of Iitate, with a population of about 6,000, were clamoring for evacuation, after the IAEA said it observed high levels of radiation there and Western media began reporting about the village's plight.
Iitate Mayor Norio Kanno, whose village is located about 40 kilometers northwest of the plant and is next to Kawamata, said in a hastily convened meeting with officials, ''I regret that the entire village has to be evacuated but this cannot be helped.''
Kazuyuki Takahashi, who moved from Iitate to an evacuation center outside the village out of concern for his 3-year-old daughter's health, criticized the government's ''slow'' action.
''They should have done that from the get-go,'' Takahashi said. ''That the radiation level in Iitate village was high was something that had already been known.''
Edano said the government also designated some areas, such as the towns of Hirono and Naraha, that were not part of the new evacuation order but within the 20-30 km radius of the plant, as areas where locals should be prepared for emergency situations that could require them to evacuate or stay indoors.
Edano said this is because of the ongoing unstable situation at the plant and warned children, pregnant women and people in need of nursing care against entering these areas.
The expanded evacuation measures came even as Edano said earlier in the day the ''risk that the situation will worsen and that there would be new massive emissions of radioactive materials is becoming considerably lower'' compared with the start of the crisis.
The government is also considering legislation to make the 20-km zone legally off-limits except for people engaged in disaster relief, given the reality that some residents are returning to that area at their own risk to collect belongings.
