Japan considers allowing limited access to Fukushima evacuation zone

Almaty. April 20. Kazakhstan Today - Authorities were considering restricting access to the evacuation zone around Japan's crippled nuclear plant Wednesday to limit radiation exposure to residents who may want to return to their homes, Kazakhstan Today reports.

Japanese authorities are considering allowing restricted access to the evacuation zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant, The Telegraph reported.

"We are considering setting up 'caution areas' as an option for effectively limiting entry" to the zone, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

About 70,000-80,000 people were living in the 10 towns and villages within 12 miles of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, which has been leaking radiation after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami wrecked its power and cooling systems.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the nuclear plant's operator, has begun pumping highly radioactive water from the basement of one of its turbine buildings to a makeshift storage area in a crucial step toward enabling work on restoring the cooling systems.

Removal of the 25,000 metric tons (about 6.6 million gallons) of contaminated water that has collected just in the basement of the turbine building at Unit 2 of the plant is expected to take at least 20 days, nuclear safety officials say. Fully ridding the plant of 70,000 tons of contaminated water in its turbine buildings and nearby trenches could take months.

Still, a senior official at the UN nuclear agency suggested the worst of the radiation leaks may be over in the worst nuclear power accident since the 1986 catastrophe in Chernobyl.

The total amount of radiation released is expected to be only a "small increase from what it is today" if "things go as foreseen," said Dennis Flory, a deputy director general at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

TEPCO has begun distributing applications for compensation to residents forced to evacuate from their homes around the plant. The company is offering about $12,000 (7,500 pounds) per household as interim compensation.

People elsewhere in the disaster zone who lost houses to the tsunami and quake - which also left more than 27,000 dead or missing - say help has been slow to materialise.

The government is still considering ways to limit access to the immediate vicinity of the nuclear plant while also responding to demands from residents, many of whom took practically nothing with them, to return to collect belongings, said Noriyuki Shikata, deputy chief Cabinet secretary for Prime Minister's office.

"We are considering ways for them to realise a short visit back to their homes," Mr Shikata said.

"Both the issue of ... strong enforcement of the area and a realisation of temporarily going back home is something we have to closely coordinate with local municipalities," he said, noting that for now there is no penalty for entering the area.

Photo: The Telegraph

This information may not be reproduced without reference to Kazakhstan Today. Copyright of materials of News Agency Kazakhstan Today.