Tomioka , Japan ( CNN ) -- As we travel down the road toward the 20-kilometer ( 12-mile ) exclusion zone , the entryway is blocked by half a dozen police officers and a large sign flashing red lights . The sign reads : `` Keep out . Do n't enter . '' This is Japan 's exclusion zone . No one lives here , a place where 78,000 people once lived . Nearly a year after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster , the exclusion zone remains off-limits due to high levels of radioactive contamination . My goal today is to see the town of Tomioka , a farming and factory community which sits in the southern section of the exclusion zone . It 's a town that was once home to 52,000 people . It 's hard to imagine that many people once lived here , as we drive into the center of town . That 's what strikes you first about the exclusion zone -- what you ca n't see , the people . Even though I know the residents have been evacuated , it is still eerie to be in a town where it seems the people have simply evaporated . Bicycles near a bus stop lie tipped over , as if owners forgot to retrieve them . Cars sit in a shopping center , seemingly waiting to have groceries loaded into them . A 7-Eleven convenient store sits in disarray , the items shaken from the shelves from the March 11 earthquake . These communities are complete ghost towns , frozen in time . The signs of life can oddly be found among livestock roaming the region . We come up to cows grazing on the hill right off the main road . They stare at us , the visitors , and then return to grazing , as we drive off . We 're surrounded by what appears to be farmland , overrun by brown weeds . I 'm carrying two radiation meters with me , one to measure surface radiation and one to track how much my body accumulates . The surface reader begins to climb , as soon as we drive past the entryway , even though I have n't placed it next to a contaminated surface , which residents hope will be decontaminated within a few years . The release of radiation from the plant primarily covered the communities to the north of the plant . Tomioka , in the southern end of the exclusion zone , has a lower level of contamination than towns to the north and northwest of the plant . But a lower level does n't mean it 's safe to be here long . We stop in a neighborhood to check the radiation . On the pavement , the surface reads a radiation level of 0.042 millisieverts per hour , which is 10 times what you 're exposed to in a dental x-ray . Not a significant problem since we 're in the exclusion zone for a short visit and wearing protective suits . But living on this street carries possible long-term health risks , especially for children . At a nearby park , contaminated soil sits under blue tarps . It 's the first hopeful sign of progress we 've seen , contained in this small park . But the rest of Tomioka sits empty , of people , of progress and an apparent future .
Tomioka was once home to 52,000 people . It sits in the southern section of the exclusion zone . Except for the livestock roaming the region , there are no people . Surface radiation meter climbs near entryway to exclusion zone .