Shiga Prefecture will widen the evacuation zone set by the central government if a nuclear accident occurs in neighboring Fukui Prefecture, home to the most reactors in the nation, after a simulation showed radioactive contamination would be far spreading.
Shiga Prefecture will widen the evacuation zone set by the central government if a nuclear accident occurs in neighboring Fukui Prefecture, home to the most reactors in the nation, after a simulation showed radioactive contamination would be far spreading.The prefecture’s Urgent Protective Action Planning Zone (UPZ) will be expanded to up to 42 kilometers, from the 30 km set by the central government, in the event of a crisis at a nuclear power plant.A UPZ is an area where residents are asked to evacuate or stay indoors if a nuclear accident spews radiation above a certain level.Prefectural officials said the decision is based on the results of their simulation of the spread of radioactive contamination from a possible nuclear accident in Fukui Prefecture, which hosts 14 reactors.The simulation factored in geographical and other variables.Shiga officials said the simulation examined the predicted spread of radioactive iodine from an accident at Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Mihama plant or Oi plant as severe as the one at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co.It showed the area where residents’ thyroid glands could be exposed to radiation levels between 100 millisieverts and 500 millisieverts per day through breathing would include parts of Nagahama and Takashima cities in the north of Shiga Prefecture.Parts of these municipalities lie outside the 30-km radius from either of the plants.The simulation assumed that individuals stayed eight hours indoors and the rest outdoors.Expansion of the UPZ will require the Shiga prefectural government to prepare for an evacuation of 40,000 people, rather than 13,000.It would force prefectural officials to draw up budgets to purchase additional dosimeters and protective gear and to install monitoring posts, just like in the 30-km zone.The expansion marks the first by a prefectural government to enlarge the UPZ on its own.The central government is expected to revise anti-disaster guidelines in April. It has announced plans to expand the UPZ to 30 km from the current 10 km.