10/04 Gov't to make exclusion area around nuke plant off-limits

Japanese police, wearing suits to protect them from radiation, guard the area as a dead body is loaded into a police van in the town of Minami Soma, inside the deserted evacuation zone established for the 20 kilometer radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactors Thursday, April 7, 2011. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The government will make the area within a 20-kilometer radius of the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant covered by its evacuation directive into an off-limits zone before allowing residents to temporarily return home, senior officials said Sunday.

The step is aimed at enhancing its control of the area where residents are temporarily returning home on their own to take out belongings despite radiation fears, with a view to forcing them out in case they refuse to leave, the officials suggested.

The Fukushima prefectural government has already urged Tokyo to accept imposing such an area, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters Sunday that the government is making final arrangements for the step and will announce it in the near future.

Under the law, the heads of cities, towns and villages who receive a directive from the prime minister set a certain area as a legally binding "caution area," where people other than those engaged in disaster relief are prohibited from entering or ordered to leave, with punishment for violators.

Japanese police, wearing suits to protect them from radiation, remove a dead body from the rubble in Minami Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, Friday, April 8, 2011. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

After the March 11 earthquake and tsunami caused Japan's worst nuclear crisis at the power station some 220 km northeast of Tokyo, the government has directed people within 20 km of the plant to evacuate and those in the 20- to 30-km ring to stay indoors or voluntarily leave the area.

The government, meanwhile, lifted its ban imposed March 23 on shipments of raw milk from Ibaraki Prefecture, as tests have shown it is no longer contaminated with radioactive materials above designated limits for consumption for three weeks in a row.

Radiation readings have fallen generally in northeastern and eastern Japan, with the level returning to that seen before the crisis in Gunma Prefecture in latest government data, but the Fukushima government said the same day it will measure radiation levels at more locations next week, except for the 20-km zone, to meet demand from residents.

"We recognize that it's necessary to talk with municipalities and set the area as a caution zone as a step before" enabling affected residents to temporarily return home, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama said earlier in the day on a Fuji TV program.

Fukuyama said the government aims to allow residents to make visits to their homes "for an hour or two" at an early date, and that necessary measures such as screening and removal of radioactive substances will be taken.

Japanese police, wearing suits to protect them from radiation, search for victims in Minami Soma inside the deserted evacuation zone established for the 20 kilometer radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactors Thursday, April 7, 2011 in Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

As for the 20- to 30-km area for residents to stay indoors, Fukuyama said the government is considering expanding it as "some areas outside of the 30-km zone have seen the cumulative amount of radiation on the rise, depending on the wind."

(Mainichi Japan) April 10, 2011