Japan to lift restrictions on Fukushima Evacuation Zone

“I plan to take measures to lift the Emergency Evacuation Preparation Zone this week if possible,” said Goshi Hosono, the minister in charge of responding to the nuclear crisis.

A Bloomberg report said Japan’s government may lift restrictions this week on some areas outside the exclusion zone around the crippled Fukushima nuclear where residents had been told to prepare for evacuation.

The so-called Emergency Evacuation Preparation Zone was set up in April for areas 10 kilometers beyond the 20 kilometer (12.6 mile) no-go zone. The area includes five cities, towns and villages where residents were allowed to stay after the nuclear accident on the condition they were prepared to evacuate at any time if radiation levels spiked.

“I plan to take measures to lift the Emergency Evacuation Preparation Zone this week if possible,” said Goshi Hosono, Japan’s minister in charge of the response to the nuclear crisis, in the Diet today.
Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant has been leaking radiation since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling, causing three reactors to meltdown and forcing 160,000 people to flee their homes.

“The government may be easing restrictions because concern about reactor explosions has diminished,” Tetsuji Imanaka, professor of nuclear engineering in Kyoto University, said by phone today. “Radiation contamination of the land hasn’t decreased so far.”