Japan radiation fears grip town on edge of destruction
The debris strewn along the coastal neighbourhoods of Minamisoma should be proof enough of the devastation wrought by the tsunami that hit Japan's north-east coast on 11 March. But for the past month this sprawling town in Fukushima prefecture has been confronted by a second, more insidious threat: radiation. Minamisoma is a town living in a state of nuclear limbo. Its southern reaches lie just inside the 20km (12 mile) radius from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that has been declared an evacuation zone. Farther north, residents have been told to remain indoors or consider leaving. Thenon Tuesday the government announced that five additional communities, possibly including more neighbourhoods inside Minamisoma, are to be included in an expanded evacuation zone amid fears over the long-term effects of radiation seeping from the Fukushima plant. Even before that advice was issued, the majority of Minamisoma's 71,000 people had voted with their feet. The first hydrogen explosion at the plant prompted an exodus that saw the population plummet to just 10,000. Petrified residents barely had time to mourn the 1,470 local people listed as dead or missing before abandoning their homes.