Evacuation outside 20 km radius of Fukushima plant starts
May 15th, 2011 - 5:29 pm ICT by IANSTokyo, May 15 (IANS) The Japanese authorities have started evacuation of people who live outside the 20 km radius from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, NHK TV channel reported Sunday.
Families with babies and children up to kindergarten age and pregnant women are the first of the 7,700 residents of two towns to evacuate, RIA Novosti cited the TV channel as reporting.
Municipal officials have said they have secured temporary housing for almost all of the residents who want it.
Some farmers cannot evacuate soon as they have not been able to find places to move their cattle. Some families cannot move together to designated temporary housing or cannot decide on the place to go as they would be far from work or school, the TV channel said.
The Japanese government has expanded the evacuation zone around the plant to areas where cumulative radiation levels are 20 millisieverts or higher per year, the TV channel said.
An earthquake and a tsunami that swept northeastern Japan two months ago damaged the cooling system at Fukushima.
In mid-April, Japan’s nuclear authorities assigned the highest level of danger to the Fukushima nuclear disaster for the first time after the devastating Chernobyl nuclear accident in the Soviet Union in 1986.
- TEPCO to cleanup radioactive debris from n-plant by July - Apr 25, 2011
- Japan: Thyroid gland irregularities found in evacuated youths from Fukushima - Oct 06, 2011
- Japan expands nuclear evacuation zone - Apr 22, 2011
- Head of Fukushima n-plant operator resigns - May 20, 2011
- Workers enter Fukushima's no.1 reactor for the first time since the earthquake and tsunami - May 05, 2011
- Fresh radioactive water leakage at Fukushima n-plant - Jan 22, 2012
- Japan nuke plant explodes - Mar 12, 2011
- Japan to reopen three towns near Fukushima plant - Mar 31, 2012
- Fukushima n-plant operator confirms fuel meltdown - May 24, 2011
- Radiation risk from Japan nuke plant 'considerably smaller': Official - Apr 11, 2011
- 'Long battle' to resolve Fukushima nuke crisis: Japanese PM - Apr 02, 2011
- Fukushima cleanup will take decades : Japan - Jul 10, 2011
- Dangerous radiation level at Fukushima No.1 reactor detected - May 10, 2011
- Expert groups to probe Fukushima n-plant disaster again - Dec 31, 2011
- Japan nuke plant hit by third blast in four days - Mar 15, 2011
Tags: cattle, chernobyl nuclear accident, cooling system, earthquake, evacuation zone, farmers, japanese authorities, japanese government, kindergarten age, municipal officials, northeastern japan, nuclear disaster, nuclear power plant, pregnant women, radiation levels, radius, ria novosti, soviet union, temporary housing, tv channel