Temporary home visits rehearsed in no-go zone near Fukushima plant

FUKUSHIMA, Japan, May 3 Kyodo - Municipal authorities on Tuesday rehearsed an operation to guide evacuees during temporary visits to their homes in the off-limits zone around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant ahead of the upcoming start of the program.
Officials from municipalities located in the 20-kilometer radius around the radiation-leaking plant checked the procedure to smoothly guide evacuated residents.
The officials took part in the rehearsal in Okuma, near the plant, wearing radiation protection gear and carrying dosimeters.
The practice was conducted as the government plans to start the brief home visits by evacuees from the no-reentry zone as early as next week. But some local municipalities say they are not yet ready to proceed.
According to the government's guidelines for the temporary home visits, evacuees will be allowed to remain in their homes for two hours and only one representative per household will be permitted to make the trip.
Meanwhile, the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, an organization under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, visited the Fukushima prefectural government office and apologized on behalf of the agency to Gov. Yuhei Sato, over 50 days after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit the nuclear plant.
Nobuaki Terasaka told Sato, ''As a person responsible for regulating the safety of the nuclear power plants, I apologize.''