nuclear plant no-entry zone expanded

[kristopher]

More villagers near troubled nuclear plant evacuate as no-entry zone expanded


IITATE, Fukushima -- Local residents here have started leaving their homes as their entire village fell under recently expanded evacuation areas near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, but it remains unclear when or whether they can come back here again.

Tatsuya Aoki, a 37-year-old father of three, decided to evacuate to Hiroshima voluntarily. "I want to stay far away from this village for the sake of my children's health," he said, adding that he had no intention of returning to the area again.

After sending off the villagers, Iitate Mayor Norio Kanno told reporters, "I don't want the village to turn into a ghost town. I will take all possible measures to prevent that." But the question remains as to how many residents will actually return to the village when the evacuation order is lifted. Citing the case of a sharp drop in the population of Yamakoshi village in Niigata Prefecture in the wake of the 2004 Chuetsu earthquakes, Kanno said, "We want to have about 70 to 80 percent of the villagers or even more come back here." But the villagers are troubled by anxiety and insecurity.

In a bid to prevent a sharp drop in the village population in the future, the local government is urging villagers to take shelter at residences or inns relatively close to the village. But too many villagers wanted to stay at some popular facilities, and therefore not all of them will be able to stay at places they want. There are many cases of "mismatches" between the requests for places convenient for commuting to offices and schools and places actually available.

On the other hand...

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110516p2a00m0na030000c.html

[damntexdem]

1. I guess the question of the population when the evacuation order is lifted depends on ...

whether it should be lifted 6000 years from now or 10000 years from now.

;-)

[LAGC]

2. There is a post in Political Videos right now showing an interview with Dr. Michio Kaku.

And even the anti-nuclear activist that he is, he estimated it would only take 30 years to clean-up.

[FBaggins]

3. The evacuation area is based on a level of cesium contamination.

Cesium's half-life is 30 years (for 137 anyway).

Presumably, that means a great deal less than 6,000 years from now.

If a given village is eventually determined to be 20% over the threshhold, one could assume that 15 years might do it. Some areas aren't anywhere near the threshold, but are within the 30km evacuation zone. They might return much sooner... but that all depends on how long it takes to stabilize the reactors.

As long as there's a risk of things getting worse again... I doubt anyone will be allowed to return for very long.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Unfortunately as predicted by some of us

and no, we are not happy at all to be "right."

Transparency though would help in the response