MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – A recent survey has revealed that only 32 of 112 families (78 people from 32 households) who were evacuated from the city of Tamura in the disaster-hit Fukushima Prefecture have returned to their homes a month after an evacuation order was lifted.
“We can’t deny that people of younger generations are concerned about radiation. We want to consider countermeasures by taking into account the opinions of residents,” local official Takashi Yoshida was quoted as saying by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper on Monday.
According to the survey, over half of those who returned to Fukushima were 60 years old or greater. Residents younger than 40 accounted for only 10 percent of returnees. And many families were forced to separate as only some family members wanted to return.
Despite the fact that Japanese authorities have lifted the evacuation order in some areas surrounding the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant on April 1, residents are afraid of returning home because of radiation contamination.
According to a report issued last month by the Japanese government, radiation levels in Tamura have dropped to under 20 millisieverts per year, but still exceed the long-term target of 1 millisievert per year.
In March 2011, Japan was hit by a massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami, claiming more than 15,000 lives and causing a number of explosions at the Fukushima plant. In what has been dubbed the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, three of the plant’s reactors underwent a partial meltdown as radiation leaked into the atmosphere, soil and seawater.
