The Yomiuri Shimbun
The government has designated five new localities in Fukushima Prefecture to be subject to evacuation in addition to areas within 20 kilometers of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has announced.
The newly designated "deliberate evacuation area" covers Katsuraomura, Namiemachi and Iitatemura, as well as parts of Kawamatamachi and Minami-Soma, Edano said in a Monday afternoon press conference. Parts of these localities are within 20 kilometers of the plant and residents already have been asked to evacuate after the nuclear crisis erupted.
The total population of the five localities is about 115,000.
If residents in the newly designated area stay in their homes, they could be exposed to as much as 20 millisieverts in the year after the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant started, Edano said.
In making its decision, the government took into consideration standards set by the International Commission on Radiological Protection and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which set radiation exposure limits to between 20 millisieverts and 100 millisieverts a year during nuclear emergencies. The latest evacuation decision, therefore, was made to prevent damage to residents' health.
After local governments involved agree to the plan, Prime Minister Naoto Kan will officially order the designations based on the Law on Special Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency Preparedness and ask residents to evacuate in about one month.
Residents of areas between 20 kilometers and 30 kilometers of the plant have been asked to stay indoors and voluntarily evacuate as soon as possible. Areas in this range that will not be part of the deliberate evacuation area will become an "emergency evacuation preparation area," where residents will be asked to be prepared to stay indoors or evacuate to safe places more than 30 kilometers from the plant in an emergency.
Localities to be designated as the "emergency evacuation preparation area" are Hironomachi, Narahamachi and Kawauchimura, as well as parts of Tamura and Minami-Soma. Portions of these areas 20 kilometers or nearer to the power station will continue be subject to last month's evacuation instructions.
(Apr. 13, 2011)
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