Tokyo, April 26: Japan’s prime minister says people who were forced to evacuate their homes due to the nuclear crisis at Fukushima plant can make brief visits to the area in May.
The destructive earthquake and tsunami on March 11 set off nuclear problems by knocking out power to cooling systems of reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and caused radiation leaks.
The government ordered the evacuation of people living in a 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) radius around the plant, and told people residing between 20 kilometers and 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the plant to remain indoors.
On Monday, Naoto Kan said evacuees can start making brief visits to their homes after the Golden Week holidays through May 8, Kyodo news agency reported.
“Since we are dealing with more than 26,000 households, we cannot (allow the visits) all at once. It will take a considerable amount of time,” Kan said.
Japanese officials announced that the visits would be made according to the government’s guidelines.
According to these guidelines evacuees are only allowed to stay in the zone for up to five hours, and only one representative per household can return to the evacuation zone.
Elderly people and those under 15 are forbidden from returning to the evacuation zone.
About 28,000 people are dead or have gone missing following the quake and ensuing tsunami.
Japan is currently conducting another search operation in the country’s northern coasts to find the bodies of the twin disasters’ victims.
——–Agencies