Evacuees can return to nuclear zone

Toddlers play at a nursery school in Tamura, Fukushima, after authorities allowed residents to return to their homes (AP/Kyodo News)

For the first time since Japan's nuclear disaster three years ago, authorities are allowing residents to return to live in their homes in a tiny part of a 12-mile evacuation zone around the Fukushima plant.

The decision applies to 357 people in 117 households from a corner of Tamura city after the government determined that radiation levels are low enough for habitation.