Japan nuke evacuation zone widened
JAPAN yesterday widened the evacuation zone around a stricken nuclear plant exactly a month after a huge natural disaster, as another 7.1-magnitude quake and a tsunami alert strained nerves anew.
The tremor shook buildings in Tokyo and a wide swathe of eastern Japan, knocking out power to 220,000 households and halting water being pumped to cool three damaged reactors at Fukushima.
The epicentre of the latest quake was 88 km east of the plant and it stopped the power supply behind the pumping of water to cool reactors No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3. The aftershock also forced engineers to postpone plans to remove highly contaminated water from reactor No. 2.
It struck at 5.16pm (4.16pm, Singapore time), not long after the nation observed a minute's silence to remember the 13,000 people killed in the March 11 disaster and the 15,000 who are officially still missing.
The government announced earlier that because of accumulated radiation contamination, it would encourage people to leave certain areas beyond its 20km exclusion zone around the plant.
Officials in Iitate had insisted as recently as last week that the village of 6,200 was safe, even as they advised pregnant women and children under three years of age to move farther from the plant.
The decision to widen the evacuation band around the Fukushima plant was "based on data analysis of accumulated radiation-exposure information", Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said at a news conference.
"These new evacuation plans are meant to ensure safety against the risks of living there for half a year or one year," he said, adding that there was no need to evacuate immediately.
-News courtesy of Omy-
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