Deliberate Evacuation Zone Expands to Include Iitate Village, 30+ km Away

Despite being 40 km northwest of the plant, Iitate Village and other communities outside the nominal 20 km exclusion zone were found to have dangerously high cesium-137 depositions due to prevailing wind patterns and rain during the accident. On April 22, 2011, the government designated a Planned Evacuation Zone extending to these communities, ordering ~7,000 additional residents to leave within one month. The pattern of contamination highlighted how wind direction rather than distance determined exposure risk.