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    December 16, 2011

Japan Declares Stricken Nuclear Plant Stable

   VOA News
   A Greenpeace activist holds a placard during a demonstration outside
   Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's official residence in Tokyo,
   criticizing the government's declaration of cold shutdown at the
   Fukushima nuclear power plant December 16, 2011. Photo: Reuters
   A Greenpeace activist holds a placard during a demonstration outside
   Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's official residence in Tokyo,
   criticizing the government's declaration of cold shutdown at the
   Fukushima nuclear power plant December 16, 2011.

   Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda says the stricken Fukushima
   nuclear plant has reached a state of "cold shutdown", bringing Japan's
   worst nuclear disaster under control for the first time since the plant
   was hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
   Noda made the announcement during a nuclear task force meeting Friday
   Stabilization of the reactors, whose molten cores spewed radioactive
   particles into the air and sea, marks the end of the second step of the
   clean-up. Step three involves the decommissioning of the damaged units,
   a process experts expect to last decades.
   Declaring a cold shutdown was a government precondition for allowing
   some of the tens of thousands of residents evacuated from the area to
   return home. However, there will still be a no-go zone around the
   damaged reactors for years.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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