Around 90 evacuees from the exclusion zone around a damaged Japanese nuclear power plant were allowed back into their homes for a short time Tuesday, media reports said.
The residents of Kawauchi village, all wearing white protective suits, glasses and gloves, were driven to their old homes in government buses for two hours to pick up personal belongings. Each of the 92 evacuees was allowed to carry a 70 by 70 centimetre plastic bag, the Kyodo News agency reported.
Kawauchi is located within a 20-kilometre no-entry zone around the Fukuhshima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and has been leaking radioactive substances since, DPA reported.
The government on April 22 declared the area in a 20-kilometre radius around Fukushima a legally binding no-entry zone, after residents kept returning to their homes to retrieve their possessions despite the dangers of high radiation.
The evacuees were only allowed to return with official permission and are to be checked for radiation exposure after their return. They were also asked to sign papers that they were returning on their own responsibility, which triggered some protests among the evacuees, who see themselves as victims of the disaster, Kyodo said.
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