Japan's Tepco says shutdown plan on schedule

I / Tokyo May 17, 2011, 18:26 IST

Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company today said its plan to bring the nuclear crisis at its stricken plant to an end was on schedule, despite signs that damage to the facility was worse than thought.

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station said it still expected to reduce radiation leaks by July and achieve a stable cold shutdown by January at the latest, in accordance with plans announced last month.

"As for the timetable of achieving the objectives, there are various kinds of uncertain elements and risks, but there is no change in the following target announced previously", Tepco said in an update to its plan.

Since gauges were installed or repaired Tepco updates have confirmed experts' fears that fuel rods inside reactor one had been fully exposed to the air and had melted.

Earlier this week Tepco said the fuel started melting just five hours after the quake and most of it had fallen into the bottom of the reactor's pressure vessel 16 hours after the earthquake and tsunami.

The geological disaster left nearly 25,000 people dead or missing, and since then radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi plant has leaked into the air, ground and sea.

More than 80,000 people have been forced from homes, farms and businesses in a 20-kilometre (12-mile) zone around the plant.