all of these items come from evacuated towns around fukushima daiichi. nearly a year mitsuro takahashi and his small team have been trying to preserve reminders of japan's 2011 disaster. they've collected more than 100 items from the evacuation zone. >> translator: it reads the name of the village the tsunami destroyed. >> reporter: this decanter is the first object takahashi brought back. finding it helped him understand his team's mission. >> translator: the idea came to me that this could be the only physical evidence that shows people did indeed live here. >> reporter: we followed takahashi and his team when they visited the restricted area in december. they went to a community hall that was used as an evacuation shelter shortly after the disaster. >> translator: you really see the whole picture here how quickly people had to leave without having time to clean up. >> reporter: the residents were fleeing the radiation from fukushima daiichi. the invisible threat is still a concern. takahashi and his team need to check the level of radiation for each i

. >> the accident at fukushima daiichi is posing another challenge. prime minister abe says the government will lead efforts to secure ways to store nuclear waste long-term. >> translator: we the generation that produced the radioactive waste, must try to ensure that we will not pass it on to the next generation. we must re-examine our practices and base our scientific evidence the government will take the lead and give instructions so as to realize final disposal. >> more than 18,000 people died or went missing in the disaster. over 3,000 have died because of indirect effects such as illness or stress while livings evacuees. nearly 230,000 people still live in temporary housing. >>> now we have in our studio our senior political commentator masayo nakajima. so what did you see were the main points of abe's news conference? >> well the point is that prime minister abe revealed that his government will make another new five-year intensive reconstruction period plan. the government had earlier designated that the initial five years from the disaster in

he lived close enough to fukushima daiichi that he could see it from a telescope. >> i heard a sound like a battlefield. >> reporter: that sound was the from the hydrogen reactor everyone from 12 miles of the plant was ordered to evacuate. after seeing more farms abandoned, he simply could not bring himself to leave. he has tested positive for internal exposure to the radioactive elements sezium 184. >> of course i was worried being exposed to radiation isn't a good thing. but i am not going to get hysterical or have a mental breakdown from it. >> reporter: but fear of radiation remains strong. and yoshitawa is the exception. most people heeded the government's evacuation order and fled in waves leaving ghost towns in their wake. we ventured into towns inside and around the seclusion zone which remain empty today eerie eerielyeareerilysilent. >> 2.2 microceverts per hour. that's clearly the highest reading we have seen the whole time we've been in japan. trends have yet to return home. these nuclear refugees are scattered throughout the area, living in temporary homes like these. >>

it's a regional building sits five kilometers from fukushima daiichi. but students and teachers have been coming to this university facility 40 kilometers away. 49 children attend classes here. a quarter of the old student body. 17 of them are seniors. including tatsie endo. he's lived nearby for the past few years. >> translator: my first expectation was that our lives would go back to normal soon. but it was dashed. i was disappointed. >> reporter: endo calls this apartment home. fukushima prefecture offers the accommodations to students who live away from their families. it's hard at first. >> translator: i wanted to go back to my hometown when i moved in. but i decided to change my perspective and focus on learning verse things from this place. >> reporter: most of the students need time to adjust. but they soon get used to taking care of themselves. and they meet friends. nakamura has been teaching this group since freshman year. >> translator: the students don't talk openly about their hardships, or about the nuclear accident. but they must have v

the storage complex is located in an area between two towns near the damaged fukushima daiichi plant. construction only began last month. so the transfer has started before it's completed. in the first year the environment ministry plans to transport 43,000 cubic meters of contaminated materials from across the prefecture. so far, the government has only secured enough land to accommodate less than half of that. once completed, the 16 square kilometer complex will hold up to 22 million cubic meters of waste. but a time line is unclear because negotiations with land owners are ongoing and have been difficult. environment ministry officials also need to start looking for location to store the contaminated materials long-term. they promised fukushima residents that if the prefecture hosts the intermediate site for 30 years the final disposal facility would be outside the prefecture. >>> the radiation released by fukushima daiichi is keeping tens of thousands of residents away from their homes. by law, they're not supposed to stay in the restricted area around the plant. but nhk has learn

but there is currently nowhere in japan to store it. >>> the people in charge of the fukushima daiichi plant are reporting another setback. they've been preparing to begin work this month to build an ice wall around the damaged reactor buildings, but the project has become delayed. and will start next month instead. officials with tokyo electric power company plan to freeze about 1.5 kilometers of underground soil around the reactor building. they hope the barrier will keep groundwater from becoming contaminated by radioactive substances inside. officials said the project fell behind schedule after two workers died in january in accidents. they say they don't know when the wall will be finished. tepco still needs to get permission from nuclear regulators for some sections of the project. company officials have disclosed that they need more time to complete another task. workers have been processing 600,000 tons of contaminated water stored in tanks at the plant. tepco had hoped to finish the work by the end of may. now they say it will take several more months to deal with an estimated

on top of that the company will have to pay for the dismantling of fukushima daiichi and for the extractionfuel debris. >> tepco officials estimate total compensation costs for the victims of the nuclear accident will reach a total of $47 billion. they say they'll need another $8 billion to decommission the reactors and deal with contaminated water. about $3.7 billion will also be required to inspect and maintain related facilities until fiscal 2022. government auditors point out problems with a system to treat contaminated water. tepco has been using a purifying system built by french company areva. but it failed after only three months in operation. the auditors are urging tepco to seek compensation from the manufacturer if it's found responsible for the malfunction. utility officials say they're considering the proper course of action. >>> a controversial plan to relocate a u.s. military facility in southern japan has hit another roadblock. the governor of okinawa has taken the first step towards making defense officials reconsider the construction of the base. nhk world's jun yotsumoto

if their plan is approved it would be the first reactors with the exception of fukushima daiichi to bentled since the 2011 nuclear disaster. the directors of kansai electric power company will accept to decommission two of their reactors at the mihama nuclear power plant in fuguekui prefecture. japan atomic power company will pull the plug or tsuruga nuclear power plant in the same prefecture. after the accident at fukushima daiichi four years ago the government limited nuclear reactors to a 40-year life-span unless they meet tougher safety standards. officials at the ministry of economy, trade and industry have been urging operators to decide what to do with reactors that have already passed that age. the reactors have a relatively small output and the power company executives have suggested they can't justify the expense of upgrading to meet the new safety requirements. two other utilities, chugoku electric power company and kyushu electric power company, plan to decide on wednesday to scrap two of their dated reactors. currently all of japan's commercial nuclear reactors remain offl

what will happen to us. >> reporter: it's four years since the explosions ripped through the fukushima daiichia cloud of radiation across the surrounding towns and villages. the japanese government tells a story the mess at fukushima will be cleaned and everyone will be able to go home. but it is still just that a story. one many here now no longer believe. i'm driving through the contamination zone to the home of someone for 300 years his family lived in this house. 16 generations of pottery makers. in his front yard is a hot spot. the radiation levels here still high, no one even knows when the cleanup will begin. he is not waiting. this is his new home and his new workshop. like many nuclear vehicles he has given up on going home and starting again. >> translator: my family has been doing this for 300 years, he says. it would be a tragedy if the nuclear accident ended my family's business. i decided it's time to start again. then i asked him how he feels about tokyo electric power, the company responsible for the nuclear disaster. >> translator: i don't want to hear that company name he say

that brings to five the number of reactors to be decommissioned aside from those at fukushima daiichi. directors of the power company say they'll scrap a reactor at their plant. members of kyushu will dereact a plant. they say it would be too expensive to upgrade reactors. they had relatively small output. the government introduced tougher regulations after the fukushima accident in 2011. all nuclear reactors in japan are offline. while the people who run kyushu plan to scrub one reactor, they are looking to restart another. the plant in southern japan could be up and running as early as june. the nuclear regulation authority approved equipment designed for the number one reactor. it involved earthquake and susan am yip resistance. the utility must apply for nra site inspection. that process could take more than two months considering how long the reactor has been idle. the plants number one and two reactors became the first to clear the new tougher regulations in september. >>> japan's prime minister is keeping tight lipped about the statement that will attract close interest from pe

. >> there has been no progress in the reconstruction of fukushima daiichi, and the sea continues to be contaminated. there are massive problems with the water used to cool the reactors. 600,000 tons of contaminated water has been collected so far. fuel rods are another problem. it has not been established where exactly the rods are located. despite all this, japan's government hopes to move away from fossil fuels and return to nuclear energy production. the government is concerned about economic growth. but even if the 21 nuclear power plants that are currently being tested would be restarted, they could only deliver 14% of japan's energy needs. she is afraid of a nuclear restart. >> there are nuclear reactors all over japan. in other words, it is not safe anywhere. >> there are still 120,000 displaced people in japan. many of them without a job without psychological care, and without hope. >> in other news, a member of russia's human rights commission says at least one suspect in the murder of opposition member boris nemtsov may have been tortured. he says the prime suspect body wa

and workers at fukushima daiichi are still trying to contain the aftermath of the nuclear accident. people in different places paused today to remember what happened in 2011, and all that was lost. some 1,200 people honored the victims of the disaster at the national memorial ceremony in tokyo. some families of those who died government and business leaders, and foreign ambassadors, observed a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m. the exact time the quake struck. more than 15,000 people died. nearly 2,600 are still listed as missing. representatives of families who lost loved ones spoke at the ceremony. sayaka was 15 years old when the disaster hit. she tried to rescue her mother who was trapped in debris in the dark, dirty water. but she wasn't able to save her. her grandmother and great grandmother also died in the tsunami. >> translator: what i lost in the disaster can never come back. i do not believe that the grief of the survivors will ever disappear. i believe that going forward is the only way to honor the memories of family members who lost their lives. and i will take positive st

matsumoto is the mayor of one of the towns near the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. the community had a visit from the president of tokyo electric power company and hand over a protest letter. they're demanding executives disclose information swiftly and get workers to change their way of thinking. >> translator: making sure the nuclear plant is safe is essential for recovery from the accident. our communities are protesting about actions that have severely undermined our trust. >> tokyo electric's present hirosa said he's sorry his company has repeatedly caused concern. he promised to take thorough steps to make sure it never does that again. >>> about 3,000 delegates from across china have assembled in beijing for the national people's congress to discuss ways to move the country forward. president xi jinping will be working to consolidate his control. but in his third year in office he faces major challenges beginning with the country's slowing economy. xi calls this the new normal and says china must focus less on speedy growth and more on improving the quality o

. >>> engineers decommissioning japan's fukushima daiichi nuclear plant have been given a clue to helpolve a big mystery. they need to remove melted fuel from inside the crippled reactors but so far they haven't been able to find it. new x-ray-like photos of one of the reactors confirmed the nuclear fuel has melted through the core. highlighting the seriousness of the sish. three of the plant's six reactors suffered meltdowns in the march 2011 accident. extremely high radiation levels have prevented experts from going inside to find the molten fuel. since february, they have been observing a type of elementary particle called a muon to get a peek inside the reactor. muons are created when cosmic rays hit the earth's atmosphere. experts viewed the particles passing through the building to create images of the fuel in the same way an x-ray works. and they've released this image. the white part in the center is the containment vessel. when compared with the diagram of the structure, it appears there's no fuel inside the nuclear core. on the right, a storage pool for spent nuclear fuel loo

the fukushima daiichi plant suffered three meltdowns and three hydrogen explosions. radioactive contamination forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes. evacuation orders are still in effect for large areas. work is under way to decommission the plant. but experts say the process will take 30 to 40 years. the operators of the facility has made some progress but it continues to face setbacks. nhk world's noriko okada reports. >> translator: you could say we've made a big step toward decommissioning the reactors. but we have to be even more careful, as the work progresses. >> reporter: in december work was completed to remove spent fuel from the number 4 reactor building. the material needs to be cooled continuously in order to remain safe. this is being done in a separate building, a number four building was damaged by hydrogen explosions. the next step will be to remove fuel from the buildings where reactors suffered core meltdowns. an even more challenging tax is removing molten fuel. it is believed to have dried and hardened. researchers are still try

if their plan is approved, it would be the first reactors with the exception of fukushima daiichi toantled since the 2011 nuclear disaster. the directors of kansai electric power company will accept to decommission t o