Governments of prefectures near the quake- and tsunami-damaged nuclear reactors in Japan prepared Tuesday to take in people fleeing radiation leaks at the power plant, reported DPA.
The government of Yamagata prefecture was preparing a list of shelters for those fleeing, the Kyodo News agency reported, after radiation levels spiked downwind of the power plant in Fukushima, 250 kilometres north of Tokyo.
"We are working to determine how many evacuees we can take in and which facilities we can use as shelters," a government official for Tochigi prefecture was quoted as saying.
Those prefectures had already begun taking in evacuees.
Authorities said many of those arriving in Yonezawa, Yamagata, were asking for tests to determine how much radiation they had been exposed to.
People living within a 20-kilometre radius of the plant were ordered to evacuate at the weekend after the first of four explosions at reactors at the plant, which is home to six reactors.
After two explosions and a fire at two of the reactors Tuesday, the government ordered residents living 20 to 30 kilometres from the plant to remain indoors with the doors and windows closed.
At a gymnasium in Tasura, 30 kilometres west of the plant, dozens of the 600 evacuees there surrounded a television to watch the day's developments as radiation levels rose in the area.
"All of us would like to return to the towns where we were born and raised, even if it takes a year or three years before we can," Kyodo quoted a 51-year-old man as saying.
Governments prepare to take in evacuees living near reactors: Japan
Governments of prefectures near the quake- and tsunami-damaged nuclear reactors in Japan prepared Tuesday to take in people fleeing radiation leaks at the power plant.
