Canada advises 80-km Japan evacuation zone

The federal government is warning Canadians in Japanto evacuate farther from the site of a potential nuclear meltdown.

Anyone within 80 kilometres of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is urged move to a safer location, the federal government said in an advisory late Wednesday.

Canada had been following guidelines by Japanese officials, who ordered the evacuation of everyone within a 20-kilometre radius of the plant in the country's northeast, which was badly damaged in last week's earthquake and tsunami and is leaking radiation. They alsourged anyonewithin a 30-kilometre radius to keep their windows closed.

However, Canada has now joined the United States in urgingthe wider evacuation zone; earlier Wednesday, the top official at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission warned at least one of the reactors in the plant is nearing meltdown.

Australia, Britain and Germany have advised their citizens in Japan to consider leaving Tokyo and earthquake-affected areas, joining a growing number of governments and businesses telling their people it may be safer elsewhere.

Tokyo is about 270 kilometres south ofthe plant.