Cold shutdown date moved forward via The Japan Times

VIENNA — The Fukushima No. 1 plant’s three stricken nuclear reactors will be brought under control by the end of the year, Goshi Hosono, minister in charge of the nuclear crisis, said Monday in Vienna, an assessment backed by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
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Bringing the reactors under control “doesn’t mean that we will have changes in the (status of the) restricted area,” he added.

Radioactive soil in pockets outside the exclusion zone around the plant have reached the same levels as in Chernobyl after one of its reactors exploded 25 years ago. Radiation leaks that displaced 160,000 people may cost Tepco as much as ¥11 trillion in compensation claims, Bank of America Corp. said in March.

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