JAPAN. Itate, Fukushima Prefecture. June 4, 2017.
Local volunteers cut the vegetation overgrowth near a contaminated soil storage facility in the town of Itate, Fukushima Prefecture.
Iitate suffered from moderate damage from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, and was located outside the nominal 30 kilometres (19 miles) radiation exclusion zone of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. However, as a result of wind patterns following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, on 30 March 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency stated that its operational criteria for evacuation were exceeded in Iitate, despite the village being outside the existing radiation exclusion zone around the plant. As a result, the entire population of the village was evacuated by government order on 22 April 2011, and to this day most residents have not returned.