A month after the March 11 earthquake, the 20 km (12 mile) evacuation zone around Fukushima nuclear plant has been extended to 30-40 km (18-24 miles). The new decision was based on data analysis regarding radiation exposure and following pressures from the International Atomic Energy Agency that urged Japan to extend the zone. People should be evacuated within a month. Children, pregnant women, and hospitalized patients will leave first. The United States have advised their citizens to stay 80 km away from the plant.
Another extension of the evacuation zone is expected soon after the completion of the present one. Residents of Iitate (a village 40 km from the Fukushima), have already been told to prepare for a new extension of the evacuation zone because of prolonged exposure to radiation.
The risk of another explosion that could send more radiation into the air has lowered significantly since March 11, but engineers are still struggling to bring the nuclear plant under control after. The fate of the 6 reactors destroyed by the 15-metre tsunami remains grim and TEPCO hopes to stop pumping radioactive water into the ocean today, several days later than planned.
A new powerful earthquake hit Japan today with a 7.1 force on Richter scale and tsunami warning made workers to evacuate the already destroyed nuclear plant. The epicenter of the quake was in Fukushima prefecture at a depth of only10km (six miles). Death toll from the March 11 disaster is 13,127, with 14,348 missing and more than 150,000 people made homeless.
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