ID :
203721
Fri, 08/26/2011 - 14:54
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/203721
The shortlink copeid
Evacuees visit homes within 3 km of Fukushima plant for 1st time
FUKUSHIMA, Japan, Aug. 26 Kyodo - Nearly 150 evacuees from areas within 3 kilometers of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant visited their homes and a welfare facility in the towns of Futaba and Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, for the first time in five and a half months since the complex was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Wearing protective gear, the evacuees -- 117 from Futaba and 28 from Okuma -- retrieved clothing and belongings from their homes and the nursing-care facility for elderly people, where their relatives were staying before the start of the nuclear crisis, during the two-hour trip.
The Sunlight Ohkuma nursing-care home is located around 2 km southwest of the troubled nuclear plant. Its residents had already moved out to relatives' homes or separate nursing-care facilities.
After returning to a transit point outside the 20-km evacuation zone in the town of Hirono, Fukushima, all of the evacuees underwent radiation-screening checks, which found they did not require decontamination.
Some of them said, however, ''This may be the last visit to our homes,'' given the high radiation level in the area.
Among the evacuees from Futaba was a 16-year-old boy who is currently staying in the city of Shirakawa, also in Fukushima. He said he has no friends in Shirakawa and it is difficult to find a job there.
The Japanese government plans to consider lifting the evacuation order for residents of areas within the 20 km zone encircling the plant from around January, the deadline for phase 2 of the road map for resolving the nuclear crisis worked out by the government and the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., officials said.
But the government will not lift the order for residents of areas where radiation levels are very high, officials said.
The government's latest survey showed that the maximum radiation level stood at 84.7 microsieverts per hour in Okuma and 40.1 microsieverts per hour in Futaba, against the annual exposure limit of 1 millisievert for ordinary people.
Friday's temporary visits to the two towns were allowed as the level of radiation exposure for evacuees during a five-hour stay would be less than 1 millisievert.
The government has organized temporary home visits since May for many evacuees from the 20-km zone around the plant, where nuclear meltdowns occurred in the wake of the March disaster, so they can collect personal belongings.
But it did not permit such visits for evacuees from areas within a 3-km radius of the plant until this month.
Wearing protective gear, the evacuees -- 117 from Futaba and 28 from Okuma -- retrieved clothing and belongings from their homes and the nursing-care facility for elderly people, where their relatives were staying before the start of the nuclear crisis, during the two-hour trip.
The Sunlight Ohkuma nursing-care home is located around 2 km southwest of the troubled nuclear plant. Its residents had already moved out to relatives' homes or separate nursing-care facilities.
After returning to a transit point outside the 20-km evacuation zone in the town of Hirono, Fukushima, all of the evacuees underwent radiation-screening checks, which found they did not require decontamination.
Some of them said, however, ''This may be the last visit to our homes,'' given the high radiation level in the area.
Among the evacuees from Futaba was a 16-year-old boy who is currently staying in the city of Shirakawa, also in Fukushima. He said he has no friends in Shirakawa and it is difficult to find a job there.
The Japanese government plans to consider lifting the evacuation order for residents of areas within the 20 km zone encircling the plant from around January, the deadline for phase 2 of the road map for resolving the nuclear crisis worked out by the government and the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., officials said.
But the government will not lift the order for residents of areas where radiation levels are very high, officials said.
The government's latest survey showed that the maximum radiation level stood at 84.7 microsieverts per hour in Okuma and 40.1 microsieverts per hour in Futaba, against the annual exposure limit of 1 millisievert for ordinary people.
Friday's temporary visits to the two towns were allowed as the level of radiation exposure for evacuees during a five-hour stay would be less than 1 millisievert.
The government has organized temporary home visits since May for many evacuees from the 20-km zone around the plant, where nuclear meltdowns occurred in the wake of the March disaster, so they can collect personal belongings.
But it did not permit such visits for evacuees from areas within a 3-km radius of the plant until this month.
