TOMIOKA, Japan (AP) – Part of the city of Tomioka, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, remains a no-go zone 10 years after a collapse sent radioactive rainfall into the area.
The disruption zone is about 12% of the city, but it housed about a third of Tomioka’s population of 16,000. It remains closed after the reopening of the rest of the city in northeastern Japan in 2017.
Only those with official permission from the municipal office can enter the area for a day visit.
Part of the area, called Yonomori, used to be a mall full of shops, houses, a 7-Eleven convenience store and a popular regional supermarket chain called York Benimaru.
The area also includes Yonomori Park, surrounded by streets lined with cherry trees, where city dwellers used to gather for “hanami” parties, have picnics under the flowers, and walk through a tunnel of flowering trees.
This part of the no-go zone is designated as a special recovery site and officials want to reopen it in 2023. The other half of the zone is a nuclear waste dump, an area full of black bags containing radioactive soil. , cut tree branches and other contaminated debris collected from all over the city. The bags will eventually be sent to a medium-term waste storage facility in Futaba and Okuma, the two cities hosting the nuclear power plant.