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Japan Imposes Legal Penalties for Entering Nuclear Zone

   VOA News  April 21, 2011
   Police officers stop cars at a checkpoint near the town of Namie,
   Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, April 21, 2011

Photo: AP

   Police officers stop cars at a checkpoint near the town of Namie,
   Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, April 21, 2011

   Japan has announced its first legal measures to prevent anyone from
   entering the 20-kilometer evacuation zone around the crippled and
   leaking Fukushima nuclear plant.
   Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Thursday the measures, which
   include fines up to $1,200, were necessary to protect the health and
   safety of the area's roughly 70,000 residents. Some of them have been
   returning to their homes in spite of official warnings.
   Edano said arrangements will be made for one member of each household
   in the no-entry zone to make a short visit home to collect valuables
   and prized possessions.
   The order does not apply to workers at the Fukushima plant, who
   reported little progress Thursday in their efforts to remove highly
   radioactive water from the basement and utility tunnel at one of the
   plant's six damaged reactors.
   It was not clear how long the order will remain in force, but the
   operators of the plant, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, said this
   week they are aiming for a cold shutdown of all reactors within six to
   nine months.
   The no-entry announcement was made as Prime Minister Naoto Kan was
   visiting local officials and evacuees in Fukushima prefecture, where
   elevated levels of radioactivity have been detected in crops and in
   some towns outside the evacuation zone.
   The Kyodo news agency quoted Kan appealing for understanding about the
   order during a meeting with the Fukushima governor.
   Kan was also scheduled to meet Thursday with Australian Prime Minister
   Julia Gillard, the first foreign head of government to visit Japan
   since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that damaged the plant and
   left more than 27,000 people dead or missing.
   Gillard was expected to assure Kan of the availability of Australian
   energy sources, particularly natural gas. Japan is hard-pressed to meet
   its energy needs following the loss of the Fukushima plant and other
   earthquake damage.
   At the nuclear plant, engineers have been working since Tuesday to pump
   10,000 tons of highly radioactive water from a basement and tunnel at
   the number two reactor. But TEPCO said late Wednesday that the water
   level in the basement was still unchanged, suggesting that new water is
   still leaking into the area.
   The company said water levels are also rising gradually in a trench
   next to the number three reactor.
   In a sign of the company's deep financial problems, Japan's Jiji Press
   news agency quoted unidentified sources saying TEPCO will raise power
   rates in June for the fourth consecutive month.
   Kyodo quoted company sources saying TEPCO is considering a 20 percent
   cut in the salaries of its employees to help finance compensation
   payments for those who have suffered financial losses because of the
   nuclear accident.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

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