The Japanese government has taken the bold and somewhat confusing step of evacuating residents of towns outside the official isolation zone, in what amounts to a de facto enlargement. Babies and pregnant women will be the first of thousands removed.
The decision comes in the wake of last week’s meltdown revelation, and will affect around 8000 people living in the villages of Iitate and Kawamata, just outside of the danger radius surrounding the leaking Fukushima plant. It’s uncertain why Japan would choose to evacuate villages outside of the official zone rather than just expanding the zone itself, but the manoeuvre shows that the crisis has yet to conclude. [ABC News]