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Gov't to lift evacuation advisory outside 20-km zone Fri.
[September 27, 2011]

Gov't to lift evacuation advisory outside 20-km zone Fri.


(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, Sept. 27 -- (Kyodo) _ The government is planning to lift its advisory Friday for residents living in areas more than 20 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, designated for evacuation in the event of an emergency, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Tuesday.



Fujimura said at a press conference that the government's nuclear disaster task force will hold a meeting Friday and lift the designation of emergency evacuation preparation zones covering all or part of five municipalities in the 20- to 30-km ring from the crippled power station.

The five municipalities have already submitted to the government their recovery plans, a precondition for lifting the advisory which covers all of Hirono and parts of Naraha, Kawauchi, Tamura and Minamisoma, all in Fukushima Prefecture.


Their recovery plans spell out the details of decontaminating the areas and rebuilding basic infrastructure to facilitate the return of residents. The plant was crippled by the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

In August, the central government said it would lift the evacuation advisory outside the 20-km zone around the Fukushima plant in the near future, saying there is only a slight risk of cooling system failures at the plant and radiation exposure levels are very low in the area.

(c) 2011 Kyodo News International, Inc.

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