Radiation cleanup work began Monday in Futaba to make the town that co-hosts the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant inhabitable again by around spring 2022 under a government-led reconstruction project. Cleanup work has been carried out in areas contaminated with radioactive substances released from the nuclear
Radiation cleanup work began Monday in Futaba to make the town that co-hosts the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant inhabitable again by around spring 2022 under a government-led reconstruction project.
Cleanup work has been carried out in areas contaminated with radioactive substances released from the nuclear plant in the aftermath of the March 2011 huge earthquake and tsunami, with the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc (TEPCO) being responsible for the cost.
But the latest work in Futaba is the first of the government-led project to make areas designated as special reconstruction zones livable again. The government plans to carry out cleanup work and promote infrastructure development intensively at national expense in those areas.
About 96% of Futaba town is designated as a difficult-to-return zone and an evacuation advisory is still in place for the entire town, which along with Okuma town hosts the Fukushima Daiichi complex.
Around 555 hectares of land, accounting for 11% of Futaba, were selected as a special reconstruction zone, becoming subject to the government-led cleanup and demolition works.
