Fukushima residents await evacuation as govt examines nuclear crisis

Thousands of Japanese residents are still waiting to be evacuated from Fukushima as the government and the Fukushima Daiichi power plant management held discussions on Wednesday over the efforts to bring down the two-month nuclear crisis to an end.

The Tokyo Electric Power Co. said its employees who are inside the plant for the first time after the disaster are making gradual progress to bring the plant back to normal cooling procedures.

About 80,000 people had left their homes near the damaged reactor and more than thousand are still awaiting to receive any word on evacuation depending on the radiation levels which are expected to rise.

The TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu and other top officials sought for forgiveness from the angered residents of Fukushima, who were allowed to pay a brief visit to their previous homes and were provided protective equipment and allowed to spend couple of hours, Japan’s Environment Ministry reported.

Government spokesman Noriyuki Shikata announced that residents have already been ordered to move out by mid-May, reports said.

TEPCO, in a statement, discussed about a six to nine month-plan to bring down the nuclear calamity and restore normal cooling.