Fukushima evacuees able to return to nuclear zone
For the first time since Japan’s nuclear disaster three years ago, authorities are allowing residents to return to live in their homes in a tiny part of a 12-mile evacuation zone around the Fukushima plant.
The decision applies to 357 people in 117 households from a corner of Tamura city after the government determined that radiation levels are low enough for habitation.
But many of those evacuees are undecided about going back because of fears about radiation, especially its effect on children.
More than 100,000 people were displaced by the nuclear disaster in March 2011 when a huge earthquake and ensuing tsunami damaged the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, causing meltdowns in three reactors.
Many of the displaced people live in temporary housing or with relatives, and some started again elsewhere.
Areas within the evacuation zone have become ghost towns, overgrown with weeds.
Temporary visits inside the zone had previously been allowed, and about 90 people were staying with special permission, according to Tamura city hall.
New stores and public schools are planned to accommodate those who move back.
Yutaro Aoki, a Tamura resident who works for a non-profit organisation overseeing the city’s recovery, said: “People want to go back and lead proper lives, a kind of life where they can feel their feet are on the ground.”
Much of Tamura lies outside the evacuation zone. The city has a population of 38,000, including evacuees living in temporary housing.
Evacuees receive government compensation of about 100,000 yen (£580) a month. Those who move back get a one-time 900,000 yen (£5,230) as an incentive. The monthly compensation will end within a year for residents from areas where the government decides it is safe enough to go back and live.
The radioactive plume from the Fukushima plant did not spread evenly, so some areas outside the evacuation zone are unsafe. Decontamination on an unprecedented scale is continuing in Fukushima, but some places may not be safe to live for decades.
