DHAKA: Plans to decontaminate six towns and villages close to Japan`s Fukushima nuclear plant have to be delayed by up to three more years, officials say.

The clean-up of the exclusion zone around the crippled plant was initially due to be completed by next March.

More than 90,000 people remain unable to return home.

Fukushima has been hit by a series of toxic water leaks in recent months. The latest contamination was reported on Sunday after unexpectedly heavy rain.

Water with high levels of the toxic isotope Strontium-90 overflowed containment barriers around water tanks, operator Tepco said.

The tanks are being used to store contaminated cooling water from reactors damaged by the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.

On Monday Japan`s environment ministry acknowledged the decontamination of towns around the plant is proving much more complicated than originally thought.

Tens of thousands of workers are engaged in the massive clean-up effort, removing millions of tonnes of topsoil and vegetation. But in the most highly contaminated areas work is yet to begin.

The government`s latest prediction is that residents will be able to return home by 2017.

But the BBC`s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo says many have already decided they will never go back.

Source: BBC
BSDT: 0935 HRS, OCT 22, 2013
GR/BSK