Gov't, TEPCO keep timetable for stabilizing nuke crisis at 6-9 months+

TOKYO, May 16 Kyodo -
The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power complex, said Monday they will stick to the utility's timetable to bring the current nuclear crisis under control by January at the latest despite the latest finding of a meltdown in one of the plant's reactors.
''There may be some changes to the methods (to stabilize the crisis) but I believe we can move forward with the plan without changing the timeline,'' Prime Minister Naoto Kan told a House of Representatives Budget Committee session.
Masataka Shimizu, president of the utility known as TEPCO, said at the same parliament session that thanks to efforts to inject water, the No. 1 reactor is being stably cooled and his firm will strive to pursue the timetable it announced on April 17, in which it said it would bring the troubled reactors under control in six to nine months.
Their comments came a day after TEPCO said a nuclear fuel meltdown at the No. 1 reactor is believed to have occurred around 16 hours after the March 11 quake and tsunami crippled the plant's critical cooling systems.
TEPCO is slated to release Tuesday an updated roadmap for bringing under control Japan's worst nuclear accident based on new information about the plant's condition.
The government will also be unveiling the same day its own version of a roadmap that will outline measures on how to deal comprehensively with the crisis amid growing discontent by lawmakers and the public over the government's handling of it.
Kan said the government's roadmap would give nuclear evacuees a timeframe for when they can leave their shelters and return to their hometowns.
The premier also told the Diet he was aware when he inspected the Fukushima plant by helicopter on March 12 that the containment vessel in the No. 1 reactor could have exploded.
''A crack could have occurred if things were left the way they were, and that was why steam valves needed to be opened,'' Kan said, adding he still decided to go because the utility was not immediately taking the action of opening the steam valves and he saw the need to personally talk to TEPCO officials at the site.
After his trip, a hydrogen explosion occurred at the No. 1 reactor.
Following the nuclear accident triggered by the March 11 twin disasters of a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami, the government directed people within 20 kilometers of the Fukushima plant to evacuate and those in a 20- to 30-km ring to stay indoors or voluntarily leave the area.
Japan has since expanded evacuation areas beyond the 20-km zone because of concerns over accumulated radioactive materials.