ID :
352100
Mon, 12/22/2014 - 00:49
Auther :

Japan to Remove Remaining Radiation Hot Spots in Fukushima

Minamisoma, Fukushima Pref., Dec. 21 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government said Sunday it will lift an evacuation advisory on Dec. 28 for the remaining radiation hot spots designated in Fukushima Prefecture, home to the crippled nuclear plant. Subject to the move are 142 locations in the city of Minamisoma, affecting a total of 152 households, Yosuke Takagi, state minister of economy, trade and industry, said in a briefing to local residents. Amid a barrage of complaints from residents about the plan, Takagi said the decision is based on procedural rules that allow hot spot designations to be lifted once radiation levels fall sufficiently due to decontamination work. In June 2011, three months after the triple reactor meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s <9501> Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the government designated a total of 260 places in the cities of Minamisoma and Date and the village of Kawauchi as hot spots where annual radiation doses for residents could exceed 20 millisieverts. Evacuation is advised in designated locations. The designations in Date and Kawauchi were lifted in December 2012. In October this year, the government conveyed its readiness to lift the designations in Minamisoma within that month. But it postponed the removal amid concerns among residents that radiation levels are still high. END

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