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Fukushima Iitate Village Lifting of Evacuation Order for “Out of Base Area” First indication of timing

November 20, 2022

The national government and Iitate Village in Fukushima Prefecture have announced that they will lift the evacuation order for a part of the Nagadori area, which has been designated as a “difficult-to-return zone” due to the accident at the TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, around the major holidays in spring next year under the so-called “lifting of evacuation order without decontamination.

This is the first time that a specific date for lifting the evacuation order for areas outside of the “base area” has been announced.

In the Nagadori area of Iitate Village, which is a hard-to-return zone where entry is severely restricted, 17% of the area has been designated as a “specific restoration and rehabilitation base zone” where decontamination and other measures will be carried out first, with the aim of lifting the evacuation order in the spring of next year.

On April 20, the central government and Iitate Village held a press conference after holding a briefing session for local residents in Fukushima City to discuss the possibility of lifting the evacuation order in the spring of next year under the framework of “lifting the evacuation order without decontamination,” which allows the lifting of the evacuation order even if the government has not decontaminated the land, provided that the local government has strong intentions to use the land and the radiation level is lowered and the residents do not return. The government has announced that it plans to lift the evacuation order for a part of the area outside the “base area” around the major holidays in the spring of next year.

The area to be removed is a 6,400-square-meter plot of land where a government demonstration experiment to block radiation by pouring concrete on the ground was being conducted, and it represents 0.07% of the area outside the “base area” in the village.

Since it has been confirmed that radiation levels have been sufficiently reduced, the government will allow people to freely enter the area to see the results of this demonstration project.

This is the first time that a specific date for the lifting of the evacuation order for “outside the base area” has been announced.

In conjunction with this, the policy of lifting all evacuation orders for the base area in the village was also announced.

Iitate Village Mayor Makoto Sugioka said, “We would like to consider using the site as a place where we can confirm the effects of the radiation dose reduction demonstration project and a place where we can pass on to future generations what has been done in the difficult-to-return zone and Nagadori area.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20221120/k10013897961000.html?fbclid=IwAR3mZj8YTUnBARRCJV-KqrxSGzF9OP-jVrRRRv2GY1kcSpDWnrIF0boiiNg

November 27, 2022 - Posted by dunrenard | Fuk 2022 | Difficult-to-return-zones, Evacuation Order Lifting, Fukushima Prefecture, Iitate