The company behind Japan's crippled nuclear power plant on Sunday unveiled a plan to rein in the on-going crisis within the next six to nine months, while frustration and skepticism continue to mount among residents who have been evacuated from the area.
Officials at the Tokyo Electric Power Company outlined a two-stage process that will see new systems built to cool down the nuclear fuel, reduce radiation levels and decontaminate the water that has become radioactive. TEPCO will then achieve a "cold shutdown" of the reactors and temporarily cover the damaged buildings, it said, though it remains unclear when residents may be allowed to return home.
"We will do our utmost to curb the release of radioactive materials by achieving a stable cooling state at the reactors and spent fuel pools,'' TEPCO Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata told a press conference in Tokyo.
Evacuees from the stricken area in northern Japan have their doubts about the plan, according to Chris Betros, editor of the online newspaper Japan Today.
"Most people are a little bit skeptical... because up until now they've not been given any timeline at all and all the experts have been saying it could be anywhere from months to years," Betros told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel. "So it's a very ambitious timeline to say between six to nine months."
"These people want to go home," he added.
"I don't believe a word they say," said Yukio Otsuka, a private school owner whose home is about five kilometres from the facility.
TEPCO and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan have both come under fire over the handling of the on-going crisis, the worst nuclear power accident in the country's history.
"Given the conditions now, this is best that it could do," said Hidehiko Nishiyama of the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. "But it cannot be said that the reactor has stabilized."
An adviser to the prime minister said he understood that people might be frustrated by the timeline. But he added, "There is no shortcut to resolving these issues. Though it will be difficult, we have to go step by step to resolve these problems one by one."
The PM's political opponents have resumed calls for his resignation, after holding off in the immediate aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the nuclear crisis. Katsumata told reporters he was considering stepping down because of the crisis.
With files from Associated Press
