"We're still recovering": 11 years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, residents return to one of the evacuated villages

7.3 magnitude earthquake triggers tsunami warning in Japan 0:31

(CNN) --

More than 11 years after Japan's worst nuclear catastrophe, the government on Sunday lifted evacuation orders for a section of a town in Fukushima previously considered off-limits, allowing residents to return home.

Kazunori Iwayama, a longtime resident of Katsurao village, which is about 40 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, said: "It feels like we finally hit the starting line and can focus on getting things back to normal." .

• The worst nuclear accidents in history: from Windscale Piles to Fukushima

On March 11, 2011, a 9-magnitude earthquake struck off the country's coast, triggering a tsunami that caused damage to the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant and a large release of radioactive material.

It was the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl (1986).

More than 300,000 people living near the nuclear power plant were forced to temporarily evacuate and thousands more did so voluntarily.

Once-thriving communities have become ghost towns.

Decontamination work near a primary school in Katsurao, near the tsunami-affected Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, on December 4, 2011.

Since then, large-scale cleanup and decontamination operations have allowed some residents who lived in the former exclusion zone to return.

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On Sunday, Iwayama watched as the gate blocking access to her home in Katsurao's Noyuki district was reopened at 8 a.m.

Evacuation orders for most of the town were lifted in June 2016, allowing registered residents to come and go, said a town official, who declined to be identified as is customary in Japan.

Most of those who have returned since 2016 are older people.

However, some households are still waiting for their sections of town to be decontaminated, according to the official.

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said this month that the opening will be the first time residents have been allowed to return to live in Katsurao's Noyuki district, dubbed the "hard-to-return" zone, an area with high levels of radiation up to 50 millisieverts.

International safety watchdogs recommend that annual radiation doses be kept below 20 millisieverts, the equivalent of two full-body CT scans.

The Japanese government concluded that radiation levels had dropped enough for residents to return, although the figure has not been made public.

Japan to release treated water from Fukushima into the sea 0:31

So far, only four households out of 30 have said they intend to return to the Noyuki district, the town official said.

Before the catastrophe, the town of Katsurao had a population of about 1,500 people.

Many of those who left have rebuilt their lives elsewhere, the official said.

Others may still be concerned about radiation.

Despite decontamination efforts, a 2020 survey by Kwansei Gakuin University found that 65% of evacuees no longer wanted to return to Fukushima Prefecture: 46% feared residual contamination and 45% had settled. somewhere else.

As of March 2020, only 2.4% of Fukushima Prefecture remained off limits to residents, and even parts of that area were accessible for short visits, according to Japan's Ministry of the Environment.

But there is still work to be done.

The Katsurao town official said some 337 square kilometers of land in seven Fukushima townships are considered "hard to return" areas.

Of these, only 27 square kilometers in six of the same municipalities are specified as reconstruction zones.

"This means that more work is needed and that other families are waiting for the areas they used to live in to be decontaminated and returned to normal," he said.

By the end of this month, restrictions are expected to be partially lifted in Futaba and neighboring Okuma - cities that are home to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant - and a similar relaxation is planned in three other municipalities in 2023, the official said.

He added that a timetable for areas outside the reconstruction bases has not yet been decided.

"This is a milestone," Hiroshi Shinoki, mayor of Katsurao town, told reporters on Sunday.

"It is our duty to try to return things, as far as possible, to the way they were 11 years ago."

Shinoki said he wanted to revitalize local agriculture - a key industry in the area - to attract residents back.

In recent years, some governments have gradually eased import bans on products from Fukushima Prefecture.

In February, Taiwan lifted its ban on food from Fukushima and four other areas.

"It seems that people have forgotten about Fukushima... but we are still recovering," said the Iwayama resident.

"Our rice, fruits and vegetables are normal ... we would like people to know that these products are safe," he said.

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