In the first major downgrading of safety measures around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant since the start of the crisis, the central government on Sept. 30 lifted an emergency directive to municipal governments near the exclusion zone.
In the first major downgrading of safety measures around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant since the start of the crisis, the central government on Sept. 30 lifted an emergency directive to municipal governments near the exclusion zone.
The order to communities within a radius of 20 and 30 kilometers from the crippled Fukushima plant called on children and pregnant women to stay away and all others to prepare to evacuate in the event of an emergency.
About 26,000 of the approximately 58,000 people living in the area, which includes the municipalities of Hirono, Naraha, Kawauchi, Tamura and Minami-Soma in Fukushima Prefecture, have moved out.
The central government decided to lift the directive because the cooling of the reactors at the Fukushima plant is proceeding smoothly and officials believe there is very little chance of major new leaks. A 20-km no-entry zone around the plant remains in place.
The lifting of the directive is significant for the rebuilding process because children and senior citizens requiring special care will be allowed to return. Educational institutions will reopen, and the construction of temporary housing will begin.
Goshi Hosono, the state minister in charge of the Fukushima nuclear accident, said at a Sept. 30 news conference: "We will provide every possible means of support so people can return safely to their homes."
There is still much to be done before evacuees can return, including restoring social infrastructure, such as water supplies and electricity, as well as removing radioactive contamination.
Kawauchi village officials expect the return of all residents to be completed by next February or March, while Hirono town officials are hoping to complete the return by the end of next year. Central government officials admit that it will not be easy to return all evacuees from the 20-30-km zone by the end of 2012.
Officials of Minami-Soma designated August and September for removing radioactive materials from public facilities such as schools and parks. Work is proceeding at five elementary and junior high schools, which are planning to resume classes from Oct. 17.
One school official said, "We are behind schedule because of the effects from the typhoon, but we should be able to complete the work in time for the resumption of classes."
Workers were busy on Sept. 30 at Haramachi Daiichi Elementary School burying contaminated soil that has been removed from the school grounds.
At the Haramachi Daiichi Junior High School, workers were cutting grass and removing garbage from ditches around the school.
Parents of students at Omika Elementary School will help clean the school on Oct. 2. School officials have prepared 1,000 rags for the purpose.
But many areas have not yet completed plans for decontaminating homes and business offices, and it is likely to take decades to rid forests of radiation.
About 90 percent of the land within Kawauchi is forested and, while village officials plan to start decontaminating the forests after completing decontamination work at local government buildings and schools, they say the task could take 20 years.
Government officials will also have to come up with measures to assist farmers who have been seriously affected by the radioactive fallout and help find jobs for the returning residents.
The central government decided to lift the directive, even though many communities are still in the process of planning decontamination, because of a perceived need to demonstrate that the Fukushima nuclear accident is moving toward settlement. Some nations are still blocking Japanese agricultural imports due to concerns about radiation.
A Cabinet minister said lifting the directive will "show that we are moving steadily toward resolving the nuclear accident."
Both Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Hosono told international audiences in recent weeks that cold shutdown at the Fukushima plant will be achieved by the end of this year, a few weeks ahead of schedule.
The central government has pledged to take responsibility for cleaning up areas with annual radiation levels exceeding 5 millisieverts, covering an area of about 1,778 square kilometers or about 13 percent of Fukushima Prefecture's total land area.
It has set aside about 220 billion yen ($2.9 billion) for the task, and, if the funding to be included in the third supplementary budget as well as the budget for fiscal 2012 are included, the total amount to be spent on decontaminating and removing debris is about 1.14 trillion yen. That bill could further increase if the central government has to help shoulder the burdens of local governments.
The Noda administration decided this week on a tax hike of 11.2 trillion yen despite fierce opposition from within the ruling parties. If the expenses for decontamination balloon, the initial estimate of 19 trillion yen for the rebuilding process over the next five years will have to be revised.
Although the central government plans to announce its plan for managing contaminated soil removed during decontamination by the end of October, Hosono admitted that it might not have a location for the storage facility by then. The central government plans to create an interim storage facility within Fukushima Prefecture, but no local government has volunteered to host the 9-square-kilometer, 10-meter-deep dump.