Japan PM says nuclear plant 'stabilising step-by-step'

Mr Kan asked people to return to normal life one month after a massive seabed earthquake sent a tsunami barrelling into Japan's northeast coast, sparking the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

TOKYO - JAPAN'S Prime Minister Naoto Kan said on Tuesday that the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant is gradually stabilising and that the amount of radiation being released is declining.

'Step by step, the reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi power plant are moving toward stability,' Mr Kan said in a televised press conference. 'The level of radioactive materials released is declining.' Mr Kan also asked people to return to normal life one month after a massive seabed earthquake sent a tsunami barrelling into Japan's northeast coast, sparking the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

The giant wave knocked out the cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, leading fuel rods to overheat and sparking explosions in an ongoing emergency that workers are still battling to bring under control.

The centre-left premier, whose Democratic Party of Japan took power in 2009, also said he wanted the conservative-led opposition to help draft a reconstruction plan after the nation's worst post-war calamity.

The March 11 disaster killed more than 13,000 people and left over 14,000 missing. Around 150,000 people are still in emergency shelters. 

-- AFP