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More people living near Fukushima's damaged nuclear power plant will have to evacuate their homes next month. The decision comes after experts warned that radiation levels would remain dangerously high across a wider area.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano confirmed that five towns outside the existing 20 kilometer exclusion zone would be included in the evacuation zone because of radiation risks.
Yukio Edano, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary, said, "There is a chance that the accumulation of radiation exposure in the area over one year will exceed 20 millisieverts. Therefore, we've designated the area as a fixed evacuation zone"
The announcement comes a day after the government declared the 20 kilometer exclusion zone a no-go area.
Before the order went into effect, residents raced back into their deserted home towns to grab whatever belongings they could.
People who enter the zone now face fines of up to 12-hundred US Dollars, or possible detention for up to 30 days.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Electric Power Company president, Masataka Shimizu, visited an evacuation center for the first time since the disaster struck.
Few evacuees at the center raised their voices to him, but most did not shy away from giving him a piece of their mind.
Masataka Shimizu, President, tOKYO Electric Power Company, said, "I am very aware today that the relationship and trust we built up with locals has totally collapsed. It is therefore very important that we find ways now to rebuild this trust, even if it takes a long time."
TEPCO has been accused of ignoring warnings about the risk of a quake and tsunami striking the plant, and reacting poorly to last month's disasters.
The company has provided a six to nine-month time frame for stabilizing the four worst-affected reactors.
XINHUA
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