Itoshima City and Kyushu University’s System LSI Lab plan to develop a smart card system that will let officials accurately confirm the safety of citizens at evacuation shelters in the event of an accident at the Genkai Nuclear Power Plant in Genkai Town, Saga Prefecture. The cards will be distributed to 25,000 people, or a quarter of Itoshima’s population, for a demonstration test this fall. In the future, the City envisions using the card to monitor the elderly and young children and as electronic money. Part of Itoshima is located within the Genkai reactor’s Urgent Protective Action Planning Zone (UPZ), and about 15,000 residents would be subject to evacuation outside the city in the event of an emergency. Under the new system, shelters outside of the city would be equipped with card readers that evacuees could use to transmit their names, addresses and other vital information to City Hall staff via a server. The national government has provided a subsidy of ¥100 million to fund this project. Source: Nishinippon Shimbun. June 11
