Perspectives

Workers remove snow from the roof of a community center in Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, on Jan. 21. (Mainichi)

The Ministry of the Environment on Jan. 26 announced a schedule for decontamination work covering 26,700 hectares of "special decontamination areas" tainted with radioactive materials from the damaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

The schedule eyes completion of decontamination work in areas where the yearly radiation dosage is below 50 millisieverts per year by the end of March 2014. However, the effectiveness of decontamination efforts is still unclear and there are a host of issues to deal with after the decontamination work is finished, including the building of infrastructure for each community. It remains unknown whether residents will be able to return to their homes.

The government's schedule does not clarify the targets for reducing radiation levels. The results of model decontamination work that the Cabinet Office is handling are expected to be released in February or March, and the Ministry of the Environment plans to wait for those results before deciding on targets.

The ministry says that with current technology, it can reduce the level of radiation in areas with readings not exceeding 50 millisieverts per year to 20 millisieverts per year or below. The International Commission on Radiological Protection says that in an emergency, evacuation is desirable if the annual level of radiation exceeds 20 millisieverts, and Japan has evacuated residents in accordance with these guidelines.

For areas with radiation levels of over 50 millisieverts per year, designated as "difficult to return" zones, the government says that it will decide on measures while observing the effectiveness of model decontamination work. According to the government's stance, under current conditions it will be impossible to lower radiation readings in these areas to a level acceptable for residents to return home.

An Environment Ministry representative said the government would approach local bodies over decontamination work in areas with high levels of radiation.

A worker pushes a wheelbarrow across a baseball diamond after helping scrape off the top layer of contaminated soil at a sports ground in Minamisoma, northeastern Japan, just outside the 20 kilometer exclusion zone around the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/ Greg Baker)

"In an area with 100 millisieverts of radiation per year, for example, we'll seek the opinions of local bodies in deciding whether or not there is a need to conduct decontamination work to bring the radiation level under 50 millisieverts," one Environment Ministry official says.

The government's schedule highlights the difficulties of reviving areas hit by radioactive contamination. To enable evacuated residents to plan their lives, the government needs to continue to carefully explain the effectiveness of decontamination work and the current situation in affected areas.