TORONTO STAR: TOKYO — Japan said on Thursday it would ban anyone entering a 20-kilometre evacuation zone around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant north of Tokyo, weeks after the tsunami-wrecked facility began leaking radiation.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 hit eastern Japan on Thursday evening, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage.
Tens of thousands of people left the zone after the March 11 quake smashed the Fukushima Dai-ichi power station, operated by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), but some have gone back to collect belongings as the utility struggles to contain the world’s most serious nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan, already facing criticism for his handling of the crisis, was publicly berated over his government’s slow response when he visited one evacuation centre in the devastated region. » | Reuters | Thursday, April 21, 2011
