Fukushima authorities said Tuesday they wanted the Olympic torch relay to pass close to the crippled nuclear plant when Tokyo hosts the 2020 Games, despite uncertainties over radioactive contamination there.
Yuhei Sato, the region’s governor, proposed that runners use a national highway that passes the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where reactors were sent into meltdown after Japan’s huge earthquake-tsunami disaster in 2011.
At its closest point, the road is around two kilometers from the plant, although Sato did not specify if runners should use that part of the highway.
“We wish to have a torch relay here so that the status of our reconstruction can be conveyed accurately,” he told a news conference after meeting Yoshiro Mori, president of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee.
Mori, a former prime minister, said his committee needs more details about the request for a torch relay and wants to study them closely.
He also said untrue rumors about safety in the area should not prevent Olympians from having a training camp there.
More
LOL, did they ever consider the possibility that this relay past the nuke plant may become a Japan-only event, due to the refusal of foreign athletes to join?
