Rick Wallace, Tokyo correspondent
From: The Australian April 21, 2011 2:29PM
Police man a checkpoint with a placard reading "Off Limits" at Minami Soma in
Fukushima prefecture. Source: AP
RESIDENTS from within the 20km perimeter around Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will be forcibly prevented from returning to their homes from midnight tonight.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan flew to Fukushima Prefecture to announce that the area around the plant would be a no-go zone.
WATCH: See TEPCO video from inside the Fukushima plant:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/japan-declares-20km-no-go-zone-around-fukushima-nuclear-plant/story-fn84naht-1226042836169
Up until now, residents have been temporarily visiting their homes within the zone to take possessions and secure their properties with the tacit acceptance of authorities.
But chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said this was about to end.
“The government would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused to residents inside the 20km radius,’’ he said.
“The situation at the plant is yet to be stabilised and the central government has repeatedly asked residents not to enter the area since it is deemed unsafe.
“The government has now completed co-ordination with the local authorities and will designate a no-go zone.
“Except for emergency personnel and those given permission from town mayors, people will be banned from entering this area.’’
About 80,000 people live within the 20km radius and many have been scrambling to recover documents needed for their compensation claims and their personal effects ahead of such a ban.
There are many farms and some stock still within the 20km zone and it was not clear from the announcement what arrangements, if any, would be made to take care of them.
The ban will be backed by fines for those entering the area, although the government will allow one member of each household to make a short follow-up visit of a few hours to recover valuables or documents.
The visits will not be offered to those with homes situated within 3km from the plant or if the householder is pregnant or under 15.
Although radiation levels within the 20km zone have fallen steadily since the first week of the crisis, there has been significant contamination of the area with radioactive cesium and iodine, and the plant is continuing to leak smaller amounts of radioactive substances.
The announcement came as Fukushima operator TEPCO released the first footage shot by US robots that entered the reactor buildings of reactors one to three on Sunday and Monday.
The video shows debris strewn across the first floor of the damaged reactor three building.
According to Network World’s report, the iRobot PackBot robots, normally used by the US military to defuse bombs, have been able to prise open doors and access many areas of the plant, while measuring radioactivity.
The radioactivity in the number three reactor was measured at up to 57 millisieverts per hour, meaning a worker would reach his or her annual exposure in less than five hours in this environment.
Radioactivity at the entry to the number two reactor building was far lower, but the robots’ mission was soon aborted when high humidity, thought to have been caused by a leak in the reactors suppression pool, caused condensation on their camera lenses.
No comments:
Post a Comment