Yoshihiro Murai took over the role of an evacuee on Saturday as part of a disaster preparedness drill near the Onagawa nuclear power plant.
The governor looked at evacuation procedures and routes in order to identify issues that need to be addressed.
Saturday was the last day of the central government's three day comprehensive nuclear disaster drill, which simulated a major accident at the Tohoku Electric Power Co. nuclear plant on the Pacific coast after an earthquake, centered off Miyagi and measuring an upper 6 on the shindo seismic intensity scale to 7, and an ensuing tsunami.
The exercise was planned to be held in fiscal 2020, which ended in March 2021, but it was postponed because of the Pandemic.
On the assumption that radioactive material was released from the plant, Murai evacuated from a junior high school in Ishinomaki and the town of Onagawa, about 10 kilometers from the plant.
On his way to an inland evacuation center, he was checked for exposure to radioactive materials in the town of Wakuya.
Local residents did not participate in the drill due to the coronaviruses crisis. Local government officials from seven municipalities within 5 to 30 kilometers of the plant played the role of residents and traveled by bus to their respective evacuation sites.
There are about 199,000 people within 30 kilometers of the Onagawa plant.
I learned that procedures at a radiation exposure test site and a reception desk take time. After the exercise, we would like to look at the results of the exercise and reflect them in the next drill, Murai said.
In 2020, Murai expressed his support for the restart of the Onagawa plant No. The reactor 2 was suspended after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
When work is done to strengthen safety measures is scheduled to be completed, Tohoku Electric hopes to reactivate the reactor as early as fiscal 2022.