Japan to take journalists to crippled nuke plant

PanARMENIAN.Net - Japan will take a group of journalists inside the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant for the first time on Saturday, November 12, stepping up its efforts to prove to the world it is on top of the disaster.

AFP reports that more than 30 reporters, photographers and cameramen are to go on a tour of the facility in Japan's northeast that sparked the biggest nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago and forced the evacuation of thousands of people.

Despite a series of setbacks, including the revelation last week that spontaneous fission had been detected inside a reactor that was supposed to be all but extinct, the government and plant operator TEPCO say they remain on track for a cold shutdown by the end of the year.

The tour, in which just four representatives from foreign media are being allowed to participate, is part of efforts by TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) to show they are close to solving the problem.

Up to 3,300 people are taking part in the clean-up at Fukushima Daiichi, a TEPCO spokesman told journalists on Friday.

The atomic crisis at Fukushima was caused by a huge earthquake and tsunami of March 11 that left 20,000 people dead or missing.