Responses Immediately after the Accident

As the emergency core cooling system stopped at Unit 1 and Unit 2 of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)'s Fukushima Daiichi NPS, the government issued, based on the Act on Special Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency, a Declaration of a Nuclear Emergency Situation and established the Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters at 19:03 p.m. on March 11, 2011.

At 21:23 p.m. on the same day, based on the same Act, the government issued an evacuation order to residents within a 3-km radius of the NPS and ordered those within a 10-km radius to shelter indoors.

Thereafter, the government expanded the coverage of the evacuation order, which was targeted to residents within a 3-km radius of the NPS, to cover those within a 10-km radius. As a result, a total of 51,207 residents in four towns within a 10-km radius were placed under the evacuation order.

As a hydrogen explosion occurred within the reactor building at Unit 1 at 15:36 p.m. on March 12, the coverage of the evacuation order was further expanded from residents within a 10-km radius to those within a 20-km radius of the NPS.
(Related to p.109 of Vol. 2, “Designation of Areas under Evacuation Orders,” and p.110 of Vol. 2, “Designation of Restricted Areas and Areas under Evacuation Orders and Removal Thereof”)

• Included in this reference material on March 31, 2013
• Updated on March 31, 2019