Iitate will be 1st to lift evacuation order without decontamination
Akihiko Morota, deputy director-general of the government’s Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters, explains the status of the difficult-to-return zone to Iitate village residents at a briefing in Fukushima city on Nov. 20.
November 21, 2022
FUKUSHIMA–Iitate village near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant plans to lift an evacuation order next spring for a small portion of the “difficult-to-return zone” so it can reclaim space for a park.
This marks the first time an evacuation order will be lifted without first carrying out decontamination work since the government made it easier to lift evacuation orders in 2020.
The order was originally issued due to high levels of radiation detected following the triple meltdown at the plant triggered by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Iitate Mayor Makoto Sugioka and the central government’s Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters made the announcement at a news conference following a briefing for residents in Fukushima city on Nov. 20.
Residents of Iitate in eastern Fukushima Prefecture had initially opposed lifting the evacuation order without first decontaminating the area, but the mayor said they were persuaded.
“We were able to obtain their consent at the briefing,” Sugioka said.
The area where the order will be lifted without any decontamination work is small. It spans just 0.64 hectares and includes only one household.
Workers will set up shields on the ground there to prevent exposure to radiation.
But the government has confirmed that even without the shielding, the radiation level is below the standard for issuing an evacuation order, at 20 millisieverts per year. The village plans to use this area as a park.
The government designated areas with readings of more than 50 millisieverts a year as difficult-to-return zones.
Iitate has a difficult-to-return zone measuring 1,080 hectares in total, according to the village and the central government.
Within this area, officials have designated a 186-hectare special zone for reconstruction and revitalization, which covers 63 households. That land will be decontaminated by removing topsoil contaminated with radioactive materials.
But there is no prospect for lifting the order for the remaining land outside the special zone, which covers 10 households.
In December 2020, the government created new criteria for lifting an evacuation order for land outside the special zone, where radiation levels are below the standard due to natural attenuation. Those conditions include a request from the local government and confirmation that no one will live there.
Among eight municipalities that have such special zones, this will be the first time that an evacuation order will be lifted outside the zone. No municipalities other than Iitate are seeking a lifting of the evacuation order under the new criteria.
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
Entry ban to end for village in Fukushima, but few plan return
May 17, 2022
Evacuation orders will be lifted in June for the first time in the residential zone considered the most heavily contaminated from 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture.
Residents who fled from the Noyuki district of Katsurao village northwest of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant will be allowed to restart living there on June 12.
The decision followed a meeting between central government officials handling the nuclear accident and Katsurao officials on May 16.
The official decision is expected to be announced at a meeting of the government’s nuclear emergency response headquarters led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Eighty-two people of 30 households who used to live in the district will be eligible to return. The district is about 20 kilometers from the stricken nuclear plant and part of the government-designated “difficult-to-return zone.”
Eight people of four families have expressed their intention to return, according to village officials.
More than 11 years have passed since the area was put off-limits by the government. And many evacuees and their families have started new lives elsewhere.
Yoshinobu Osawa, a 68-year-old man who lives in public housing with his wife in Miharu, a town about 30 km from the Noyuki district, indicated that they will not return to their original home.
His house in the district was dismantled three years ago, and he believes he is too old to rebuild his life from scratch.
“The passage of 11 years after the disaster weighs heavily,” he said.
Following the triple meltdown at the plant in March 2011, the government issued evacuation orders for areas where annual radiation doses were estimated to reach 20 millisieverts, including all of Katsurao.
The government also designated areas with readings of 50 millisieverts a year in the difficult-to-return zone.
Seven municipalities, with a combined pre-disaster population of 22,000, fell in this category, including most of Katsurao as well as Okuma and Futaba, which co-host the nuclear plant.
Barricades were erected to prevent people from entering the difficult-to-return zone.
In December 2011, the government prioritized decontamination efforts in districts outside the difficult-to-return zone. It also said restrictions on living in the zone would remain for many years because of the high radiation levels.
But in a reversal of the policy, the government in August 2016 announced that it would clean up parts of the zone for a future lifting of the entry ban. A government study showed that radiation levels had dropped naturally in some areas of the zone despite the absence of decontamination work.
In 2016, Katsurao villagers whose homes were located in areas with readings of less than 50 millisieverts a year were allowed to return.
However, less than 30 percent have returned, according to the village hall, which is hoping that 80 people will return within the next five years.
Hiroshi Shinoki, the village chief, acknowledged the challenge at a news conference on May 16.
“We have finally reached the starting line for reconstruction,” he said. “But numerous problems have arisen as time passed by.”
The lifting of the entry ban for specific reconstruction areas in Okuma and Futaba is expected between June and July.
Osawa noted that cleanup work has reduced the radiation levels of the Noyuki district to less than 20 millisieverts a year.
Still, the figure is 10 times that of the pre-disaster doses.
He said he cannot gather mushrooms and edible wild plants like he used to because they are now contaminated.
(This article was compiled from reports by Susumu Imaizumi, Tetsuya Kasai, Keitaro Fukuchi and Senior Staff Writer Noriyoshi Ohtsuki.)
Evacuation order may be lifted in part of Fukushima ‘difficult-to-return’ zone
May 13, 2022
Officials in Japan plan to lift an evacuation order for part of the area designated as a “difficult-to-return” zone in Fukushima Prefecture due to high radiation levels from the 2011 nuclear accident.
An evacuation order remains in place for the Noyuki district, which covers about 20 percent of Katsurao Village.
Authorities aim to lift the order in about six percent of the district, which has received preferential treatment for decontamination work and infrastructure projects.
Sources say a briefing for residents about the result of the rebuilding work is scheduled for Sunday, after a delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The sources say officials from the central and prefectural governments and the village are making arrangements to lift the order on June 5 at the earliest.
It would be the first case in which people will be able to return to their homes in a “difficult-to-return” zone. Katsurao Village officials say eight people from four households are hoping to return to the area.
Clear vision needed for future of still-evacuated Fukushima areas
September 16, 2021
More than a decade after the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant accident, there remains more than 30,000 hectares of land where the evacuation order is still in place and is not expected to be lifted any time soon.
The government recently announced a plan to rebuild ravaged communities in these areas near the crippled plant with high levels of radiation, known as “kitaku konnan kuiki” (difficult-to-return zone).
Under the plan, the government will decontaminate the land and houses of local residents who want to return to their homes so that the order can be lifted by the end of the 2020s.
Initially, the evacuation order covered more than 110,000 hectares. The measure was lifted for some 80,000 hectares by March last year.
In 2017 and 2018, the government thrashed out a plan to designate some 2,700 hectares of land in six municipalities within the zone as reconstruction priority areas eligible for preferential policy support to help improve the living environment. The plan requires the government to make intensive decontamination efforts in the areas and lift the evacuation order by the spring of 2023.
The local administrations involved asked the national government to make clear when the order will be lifted for the remaining areas in the difficult-to-return zone.
The latest plan unveiled by the government may represent a step forward as it offers a specific timeframe for lifting the measure, albeit for only those who wish to return to their homes. The blueprint has brought a ray of hope to local residents who have been facing a distressingly uncertain future outlook.
But the fact remains that the government has yet to offer a realistic road map to deliver on its promise to lift the evacuation order for the entire restricted zone sometime in the future, no matter how long it will take.
The government has pledged to tread carefully in this undertaking, holding multiple meetings with residents to ask about their desire to to return home as well as talks with local administrations on the range of areas to be decontaminated.
But it has yet to announce specifics about the decontamination, such as the areas to be covered or the method to be used.
The residents in these areas have been living as evacuees for more than 10 years. Many of them are likely to find it difficult to decide even if they want to return to where they once lived.
If the government proceeds with the latest plan, it needs to work out details of how it will tackle the challenge in a “careful” manner. The details should cover how the government will confirm the local residents’ wishes and ensure the level of decontamination that can reassure them of the safety of returning to their homes.
Moreover, the land and buildings that nobody wants to return to will not be covered by the plan to lift the order. This will remain a serious issue for the future.
The government has so far spent some 3 trillion yen ($27.45 billion) on decontaminating areas subject to the evacuation order. This effort has allowed some 14,000 residents, or 30 percent of the local population, to return home. It will cost taxpayers a huge additional amount of money to accelerate the cleanup work in the difficult-to-return zone, where nearly 22,000 people are still registered as residents.
The government says the necessary funds will be budgeted from the Fukushima reconstruction special account and other appropriate financing sources. But it admits the total amount of money required cannot be estimated since it depends on the number of local residents who want to return.
In other words, it has no clear and viable plan to raise the necessary funds.
The 2011 special law to deal with contamination by radioactive materials from the Fukushima plant stipulates that it is the government’s “obligation” to deal with radiation pollution caused by the accident.
The government has a duty to offer as soon as possible a clear future vision for tackling this formidable challenge, specifying when and how the evacuation order will be lifted and what kind of policy support will be provided to residents including those who choose not to return to the areas.
Former students return to school 7 years after nuclear disaster
7 summers later, weeds engulf Fukushima’s abandoned areas
The startling effects of the passage of time come into sharp focus in aerial images taken of Fukushima’s “difficult-to-return zones” in the seventh summer since the March 2011 nuclear disaster.
The bird’s-eye view pictures were captured in abandoned areas near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Okuma and Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture.
The disaster unfolded after the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake spawned a tsunami that devastated coastal areas of the Tohoku region, including Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 plant.
The Okuma outlet of Plant-4, a large shopping mall located 3 kilometers away from the nuclear plant along National Route No. 6, had been bustling with visitors before the disaster.
Today, weeds grow from the cracks of the asphalt-surfaced mall parking lot, slowly creeping through the expanse of space.
One striking image shows the exterior of the TEPCO-owned condominium building, which housed its employees in Futaba, is becoming covered with rampant weeds that have reached the second floor.
Another photo shows cars that cannot be recovered are partially buried, appearing as if they are sinking into a sea of green.
Public funds earmarked to decontaminate Fukushima’s ‘difficult-to-return’ zone
The so-called “difficult-to-return” areas are colored in grey
The government is set to inject some 30 billion yen in public funds into work to decontaminate so-called “difficult-to-return” areas whose annual radiation levels topped 50 millisieverts in 2012 due to the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant disaster, it has been learned.
While the government had maintained that it would demand plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) cover the decontamination expenses based on the polluter-pays principle, the new plan effectively relieves TEPCO from the hefty financial burden by having taxpayers shoulder the costs.
The new plan is part of the government’s basic guidelines for “reconstruction bases” to be set up in each municipality within the difficult-to-return zone in Fukushima Prefecture from fiscal 2017, with the aim of prioritizing decontamination work and infrastructure restoration there. The government is seeking to lift evacuation orders for the difficult-to-return zone in five years.
However, the details of the reconstruction bases, such as their size and locations, have yet to be determined due to ongoing discussions between local municipalities and the Reconstruction Agency and other relevant bodies.
The government is set to obtain Cabinet approval for the basic guidelines on Dec. 20 before submitting a bill to revise the Act on Special Measures for the Reconstruction and Revitalization of Fukushima to the regular Diet session next year. The 30 billion yen in funds for the decontamination work will be set aside in the fiscal 2017 budget.
In the basic guidelines, the government states that decontamination work at the reconstruction bases is part of state projects to accelerate Fukushima’s recovery and that the costs for the work will be covered by public funds without demanding TEPCO to make compensation. The statement is also apparently aimed at demonstrating the government’s active commitment to Fukushima’s restoration.
Under the previous guidelines for Fukushima’s recovery approved by the Cabinet in December 2013, the government had stated that it would demand TEPCO cover the decontamination expenses of both completed and planned work. However, it hadn’t been decided who would shoulder the decontamination costs for the difficult-to-return zone as there was no such plan at that point.
Masafumi Yokemoto, professor at Osaka City University who is versed in environmental policy, criticized the government’s move, saying, “If the government is to shoulder the cost that ought to be covered by TEPCO, the government must first accept its own responsibility for the nuclear disaster, change its policy and investigate the disaster before doing so. Otherwise, (spending taxpayers’ money on decontamination work) can’t be justified.”
http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20161219/p2a/00m/0na/015000c
State funds planned for cleaning heavily contaminated zones in Fukushima
Privatized profit, socialized risk and clean up
The government plans to use state funds to finance the radiation cleanup in the areas most seriously contaminated by the Fukushima disaster in 2011, government sources said Friday.
It is the first plan to decontaminate the “difficult to return to” zones, including a large portion of the two towns hosting the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and parts of other nearby municipalities in the prefecture.
The move is intended to expedite the cleanup process but may draw criticism because it will effectively reduce the financial burden on Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., the utility responsible for the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
Under the current legal framework, the decontamination costs are first shouldered by the state, with Tepco told to reimburse the expenses over time. But since the costs are expected to far exceed the ¥2.5 trillion estimated earlier, the utility has requested more financial support.
The government plans to conduct decontamination in the difficult-to-return-to zones, which comprise about 337 sq. km of land where around 24,000 people used to live, the sources said.
The work within the designated “reconstruction bases” will include removing buildings, replacing soil and paving roads.
Tepco will only be asked to shoulder the costs of cleaning existing facilities and infrastructure that will continue to be used within the reconstruction bases.
The government hopes to officially endorse the plan this month, the sources said.
The Fukushima disaster, triggered by a huge earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, prompted the government to issue evacuation orders to 11 municipalities near the plant.
The areas have been reclassified into three categories based on radiation level — a zone where evacuation orders are ready to be lifted, a zone where human habitation is restricted, and a zone where residents will have difficulty coming back to for a long time.
The areas subject to evacuation are gradually being reduced, with the government setting a goal of lifting all the remaining orders apart from the difficult-to-return-to zones by next March.
In the heavily contaminated zones, the government plans to conduct costly and intensive radiation cleanup efforts that will allow it to lift the evacuation orders in five years’ time.
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