TAMURA, Japan, April 3 (UPI) -- A year later, officials say many residents of Tamura and Kawauchi, Japan, returned home for the first time since the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear disaster.
Portions of the two cities, located within Fukushima Prefecture, were placed under a no-entry restriction immediately following the nuclear meltdown of March 12, 2011. Officials lifted the restriction Sunday, allowing the roughly 380 residents of Tamura and 350 residents of Kawauchi who lived in the evacuation zone to return home, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.
Although decontamination of the restricted zone is behind schedule, 67-year-old Tamura resident Akiko Tsuboi was pleased to return home early Sunday to place flowers on the family shrine for the first time since the evacuation.
"Today is a new start," she told the Yomiuri Shimbun. "I'm home."
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Residents were previously allowed to visit their homes under time restrictions, the last one allowing four hours including travel time. This time, there is no time restriction.
The afternoon of March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake occurred just off the coast of Japan and triggered a tsunami with waves up to 133-feet high, which disabled the emergency cooling systems for the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear reactors. Without cooling systems, hydrogen explosions crippled the reactors, causing radiation to leak. Officials evacuated everyone within 12 miles of the plant.
Roughly 1 percent of Tamura's population was evacuated, along with about 12 percent of Kawauchi's population. Areas closer to the meltdown are still restricted. However, officials say residents should be able to return soon. Ice and snow have delayed the decontamination process, leaving water and other damaged infrastructure still untouched.
