Report tells of future Fukushima radiation

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FUTABA, Japan, April 23 (UPI) -- Airborne radiation levels in some parts of Japan's Fukushima prefecture are expected to remain at dangerous levels for a decade, a government report says.

Trade Minister Yukio Edano presented the report Sunday to civic leaders of Futaba, one of the towns hosting the Fukushima No. 1 power plant crippled by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, Jiji Press reported.

The report, compiled to help municipalities draw up recovery and repopulation programs, contains radiation forecasts for 2012 to 2014, and for 2017 and 2022, based on the results of monitoring last November.

Annual radiation levels in March 2022 will probably exceed 50 millisieverts in Futaba and Okuma, the other town that hosts the radiation-leaking plant, the report said.

In another meeting with local governments in Fukushima prefecture, Reconstruction Minister Tatsuo Hirano presented a draft policy for reviving Fukushima based on a special reconstruction law that went into effect in March, which promised fiscal support from the national government to improve living conditions and revive the regional economy and communities.