information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
1 Septembre 2015
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150901p2a00m0na005000c.html
Residents of three municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture returned home on Aug. 31 for three-month trial stays to prepare for the government's planned lifting of nuclear evacuation orders issued in the wake of meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.
The three-month stays have been allowed in the Fukushima Prefecture city of Minamisoma, the town of Kawamata and the village of Katsurao. There are three levels of no-entry areas, with "difficult-to-return zones" being the area with the highest radiation dosages. According to the Cabinet Office, 14,255 people in a total of 4,647 households from the no-entry areas of the lower two levels are allowed to return home for three months. However, the number of people who applied for the trial stays remained low at 1,265 from 465 households.
Minamisoma resident Tadaaki Sato, 75, who had evacuated to the city's Kashima district, came home to the Odaka district with his 74-year-old wife, Nobuko, and his mother, Toshi, 97.
"I feel like I can finally be positive about life," Sato said, with a sigh of relief.
The couple was busy cleaning their house and setting up furniture and household goods that they had brought in the day before. Sato saw an acquaintance who had also returned home in his front yard and chatted to catch up.
The Sato family moved from one location to another -- in Yamagata, Nagano and other prefectures -- following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011. In April this year, Toshi had her right leg broken and was left wheelchair-bound. To fulfill his mother's wish to go home, Sato spent some 1.5 million yen to install an electric lift to stairs at their house.
Decontamination work on Sato's premises had just finished on the morning of Aug. 31 while such work was still being carried out in neighboring areas.
"It's still chaotic, but I can relax in my own home," Nobuko said with a smile.
Of 133 households in the area where Sato's home is located, only 18 households had applied for the trial stays. Sato said he was worried about the future of his hometown and whether it will revive to its pre-disaster state.
The three municipalities plan to officially allow their residents to permanently return home, except for those from the difficult-to-return zones, in spring next year.
JIJI
FUKUSHIMA – Evacuees from three municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture returned home on Monday for long-term stays before the central government’s planned lifting of its evacuation order there.
The government has found it all right to allow the three-month stays to prepare for permanent returns home since radiation levels have dropped in the municipalities — the city of Minamisoma, the town of Kawamata and the village of Katsurao — since the March 2011 meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 plant.
The government will decide by November whether to lift the evacuation order after hearing from the evacuees.
The long-term stays were allowed to 14,255 people in 4,647 households who had been residents of evacuation areas in the municipalities, except no-go zones, where returns are difficult, the largest number in the long-stay program so far.
As of Monday, 1,308 people out of 478 households, some 10 percent of the total, had reported to the government that they would start the long-term stays in their homes.
Decontamination work in the residential areas of Kawamata and Katsurao was completed in the summer last year, halving the average radiation level in the air to 0.5 microsievert per hour.
In Minamisoma, only 26 percent of decontamination work had been finished by the end of July, but natural falls in radiation levels were taken into consideration.
Dosimeters will be handed out to each of the households staying in their homes, while consultants will be dispatched to check the health status of residents. Minamisoma has set April 2016 as its target date for the lifting of the evacuation order, while Katsurao and Kawamata have both named spring of the same year.
Long-term stays in their homes for Fukushima evacuees were conducted in the city of Tamura and part of the village of Kawauchi, where evacuation orders have been removed, and in the town of Naraha, where it is slated to be lifted on Sept.5.
/https%3A%2F%2Fassets.over-blog.com%2Ft%2Fcedistic%2Fcamera.png)