No evacuation plans for nuclear accidents

July 16, 2014

Nursing facilities, hospitals lack evacuation plans for nuclear disasters

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140716p2a00m0na007000c.html

Many nursing care facilities and hospitals located within Japan's nuclear power plant evacuation zones have yet to establish evacuation plans, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned.

The finding comes as the Nuclear Regulation Authority on July 16 approved the new safety features of Sendai Nuclear Power Plant in a step toward its restart.

Of the 875 nursing care facilities in Japan located within a 30-kilometer radius of a nuclear power plant, 621, or 70 percent, do not have any predetermined destinations for evacuation in the event of a nuclear crisis. Likewise, 633 hospitals, or 75 percent of the 838 hospitals within 30 kilometers of a nuclear plant, have not secured evacuation facilities.

The Mainichi Shimbun sent questionnaires between June and July to 21 prefectural governments and 125 municipalities within 30 kilometers of a nuclear plant, excluding the 10 municipalities where evacuation orders remain in place due to the ongoing Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant crisis. All but one of the surveyed municipalities responded.

The government's new nuclear emergency guidelines, set after the onset of the Fukushima disaster, require evacuation plans for residents within 30 kilometers of a nuclear plant -- expanded from the original designation of eight to 10 kilometers from a plant. According to the new rules, prefectural and municipal disaster plans require operators of institutions and hospitals to devise evacuation strategies.

The Mainichi survey showed that 40 percent of the surveyed municipalities -- a total of 49 -- had yet to lay down evacuation plans. In Miyagi, Ibaraki, Niigata, Shizuoka and Toyama prefectures, where 40 of these municipalities are located, none of the 377 care facilities and 412 hospitals had secured places for their staff and patients to evacuate.

Municipalities in Kagoshima Prefecture, where the Sendai nuclear plant is located, and Aomori, Ishikawa, Shiga, Ehime and Nagasaki prefectures have finished designing evacuation plans for residents, but with a few exceptions, care facilities and hospitals have not found evacuation sites.

Officials with the Kagoshima Prefecture city of Satsumasendai, which hosts the Sendai plant, said that because areas beyond the 30-kilometer radius of the plant are under the jurisdiction of other municipalities, the city cannot organize evacuation sites for care facilities and hospitals on its own. Ehime Prefecture officials likewise said that evacuation plans are too difficult for facility operators to organize on their own, and that it's an issue that requires the cooperation of various administrative offices.

Meanwhile, seven prefectures including Fukui, where Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi Nuclear Power Plant is located, said that evacuation sites for all of its 231 care facilities and 202 hospitals have been secured.

However, care facilities and hospitals in Shimane Prefecture and some parts of Hokkaido will first be evacuated to hotels and other accommodation facilities designated by the respective municipalities, and from there, prefectural officials will be responsible for coordinating their relocation.

Ken Takagi, the secretary general of the Reconstruction Committee of the Fukushima Ward Council on Social Welfare -- who at the time of the Fukushima disaster's onset operated a day service for the elderly in the Fukushima Prefecture town of Naraha, and evacuated with clients to Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture -- knows firsthand the difficulties of evacuation.

"In reality, it's hard for care facilities and hospitals to find evacuation sites on their own, because it imposes a heavy burden on host facilities," Takagi says. "The national government should listen to the needs of local communities and take the initiative so that the elderly and hospital patients can be evacuated smoothly to facilities similar to their own."

July 16, 2014(Mainichi Japan)