Japan Nuclear Refugees Make Brief Trip Home

These evacuees from the exclusion zone around Japan's crippled nuclear power plant haven't seen their homes in Kawauchi village for weeks.

This was their first trip back since the Fukushima Daiichi plant leaked radiation after the March 11th quake and tsunami.

It's the briefest of visits.

They have just two hours to collect personal belongings and for some to check on farm animals.

This farmer's cattle are free to roam and he says that's a load off his mind.

[Unidentified evacuee]:
"Well, I'm not worried. I think they are well. They are free so I'm not worried, even if they are not here. Other people are freeing their cows as well so they will become friends."

Thousands of people within a 20-kilometer radius of the wrecked nuclear plant have been forced to leave their homes.

Others in five towns downwind from the plant have also been told they'll have to go.

The head of the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the stricken plant, is asking the government’s help to shoulder the burden of compensation.

Ministers have so far failed to agree on a final plan to help the firm cope with the anticipated multi-billion dollar bill.

While the wrangling goes on these evacuees have to come to terms with the possibility that this is the last they'll see of their own homes for a very long time.