Rezoning of Litate

July17, 2012

Radioactive village rezoned into 3 parts

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120717_07.html

A village in Fukushima Prefecture has been divided into 3 areas according to accessibility.

One area has been fenced off because of a high level of radioactive contamination.

Nearly all of the 6,000 residents were removed from Iitate village after the March 2011 accident at the nearby Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The village was reclassified into 3 areas on Tuesday.
6 fences were set up along the border of the no-entry zone which is expected to be uninhabitable for a long time.

At midnight government officials locked down 3 of the 6 fences with coded bolts. Only people who own homes in the area are allowed to enter using the code, but their stay will be limited from morning to evening. They are prohibited from staying overnight in their homes.

The rezoning is part of the government's review of no-entry and evacuation zones set up in 11 municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture after the nuclear accident.

In Iitate village, full-fledged decontamination work will start focusing on homes so residents can return. But there is no plan yet to decontaminate wooded land and paddy fields which cover 85 percent of the village.

Irradiated Iitate to be divided into three radiation zones

Jiji

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120717b1.html#.UAVJsZFIwpU

FUKUSHIMA — The village of Iitate on Tuesday will be the fourth municipality in Fukushima Prefecture to have its nuclear evacuation zones rearranged by the central government.

Iitate, whose residents were given a month to leave after the Fukushima No. 1 plant went into meltdown after the Great East Japan Earthquake and showered the village with radiation before the evacuation order was given, will be divided into three radiation zones.

The zones will designate areas delivering annual radiation doses of up to 20 millisieverts, between 20 millisieverts and 50 millisieverts, and over 50 millisieverts.

About 30 percent of the village will fall into the lowest radiation zone, where preparations are to be made to lift the evacuation order and allow businesses to operate. The other 70 percent apparently will be collectively known as the "residency control area," where people will be allowed to make temporary visits to their homes without jumping through the usual procedural hoops.

The Nagadoro district, where about 70 households lived, will be put into the highest zone and be off-limits to everyone for at least five years.

But no residents will be allowed to stay at home in any of the three new zones for the time being.

Iitate is outside the 20-km no-go zone set up around the crippled Fukushima power plant, but the high radiation levels there led the government in April last year to designate the entire village as an evacuation-preparation zone.

Most of the 6,300 or so residents of Iitate fled to temporary housing in the city of Fukushima or elsewhere. The central government plans to attempt decontamination of the village by next March and hopes to complete the process in spring 2014.