Research team from Fukushima to visit Chernobyl

A group of experts and municipal officials from around the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will visit Chernobyl to learn first-hand about post-nuclear crisis efforts. The trip is being organized by Fukushima University. It says more than 20 medical and other specialists and municipal officials will take part in the 8-day trip starting on October 31st They include Yuko Endo, the Mayor of Kawauchi Village near the disaster-stricken nuclear plant. The group plans to visit the site of the 1986 Chernobyl accident, as well as schools and hospitals in areas where radiation levels are still high. The university says the group hopes to meet regional government officials and residents to find out when evacuees were allowed to return home, and what measures were taken to decontaminate the polluted areas. The group also hopes to learn about the arrangements to check residents' health and the compensation systems for the public.