More and more residents continue flee areas around the Fukushima nuclear site, seeking shelter at the exclusion zone. Many of them are facing a radiation scan.

At this evacuation center inside the Yamagata stadium every new arrival is greeted with a radiation scan using a Geiger counter.

Only when this is successfully passed are they given a new home on the hard wooden floors of two basketball courts.

Yamagata City lies just over the other side of a range of mountains from Sendai, the largest city near the earthquake's epicenter and one of the worst hit areas.

The stadium now holds more than a thousand evacuees, many of whom have fled the exclusion zone that surrounds the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The center is run by the city council and all families, without exception, are screened for radiation.

Geiger counters scan the head and upper body for any signs of radiation. 0.2 is considered the normal body level, and if this increases above 30, a warning sounds, alerting officials to possible contamination.

Kenji Talceda, Worker of Yamagata City Council, said, "In an actual situation, I would put this where the skin is exposed. If the lever rises above 30, then an alarm will set off and in that case we will transfer the person to the hospital."

The Japanese government has been providing daily updates about the scale of the nuclear leaks and radiation levels. But there are still fears among the public.

Osamu Takezawa, 57 Year Old Evacuee, said, "Normally, in this kind of situation, I would assume the radius should be wider so people around me are saying, if the government says 40km, we should think it as 50km, if they say its 50km, we should think 60km and that we should always add on additional distance to what the government says. "

More than seven thousand people have now been confirmed as dead from the twin natural disasters that struck Japan last week when whole towns were submerged and swept from the map. 10,700 people are still missing, many of whom are feared dead.