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Japan Announces New Nuclear Evacuation Area Tokyo, April 22 (Jiji Press)--Japan has set a new evacuation area outside the no-entry zone around the crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, its top government spokesman said Friday. Prime Minister Naoto Kan instructed Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato and heads of municipalities concerned to have residents leave the new evacuation area by the end of May, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said at a press conference. The new evacuation zone covers Iitate, Katsurao and Namie as well as parts of Minamisoma and Kawamata with the combined population of some 10,000 people.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011 Edano: Government Mulling Banning Entry Into 20-km Evacuation Zone TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Japan's top government spokesman said Wednesday that the government is considering prohibiting people from entering an evacuation area within a 20-kilometer radius of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. "With people entering [the area], we are having to consider establishing a no-entry zone," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano at a regular press briefing, giving his strongest indication yet that the government may go ahead with such a plan. "We understand people wanting to return, having evacuated with just the clothes on their backs," Edano...

April 7, 2011, 9:10 PM JST. Inside Fukushima Evacuation Zone: Cows, Dogs, and Geiger Beeps By Yoree Koh The 20 kilometers of land that circles the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has become a mysterious place ever since the government drew a border ringing the plant soon after the March 11 disaster, marking it as a must-leave, no-go exclusion zone nearly a month ago. Japanese police, Self-Defense Force troops and U.S. military started searching for bodies with the 10 km radius for the first time Thursday. /snip But now a visible document of what lies within the 20 kilometer...

APRIL 7, 2011, 7:01 A.M. ET. Japan May Enlarge Evacuation Zone By TOKO SEKIGUCHI And MITSURU OBE TOKYO—Japan may look to extend the evacuation zone around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant as the crisis there drags on, the government's top spokesman said Thursday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the current 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) zone, which was based on the assumption of short-term exposure, may need to be enlarged. The plant emergency caused by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11 is now nearing the end of its fourth week. "Current evacuation orders apply to areas where people are...

Japan nuclear crisis: Pressure to widen evacuation zone UN nuclear monitors have advised Japan to consider expanding the evacuation zone around the stricken reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. An exclusion zone with a radius of 20km (12 miles) is currently in place but the UN says safe radiation limits have been exceeded 40km away. /snip 'No immediate action' The UN's nuclear watchdog (International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA) found safe radiation limits had been exceeded at the village of Iitate, 40km north-west of the nuclear plant. "The highest values were found in a relatively small area in the north-west from...