TOKYO, April 8 (Reuters) – Japan’s anti-nuclear movement,
small and ignored by the general public, is gaining traction as
a crisis at a tsunami-stricken nuclear power plant drags on for
weeks with no clear end in sight.

The growing debate will make it difficult for the government
to meet its target securing 50 percent of national electricty
from nuclear power by 2030, up from 30 percent now.

TOKYO, April 3 (Reuters) – Japanese officials grappling on
Sunday to end the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl
were focusing on a crack in a concrete pit that was leaking
radiation into the ocean from a crippled reactor.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it had found a
crack in the pit at its No.2 reactor in Fukushima, generating
readings 1,000 millisieverts of radiation per hour in the air
inside the pit. [ID:nL3E7F2039]

TOKYO, April 2 (Reuters) – Japan’s prime minister made his
first visit to the country’s tsunami-devastated region on
Saturday as officials grappling to end the worst nuclear crisis
since Chernobyl said they may have discovered why radiation has
been leaking into the sea.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it had found a
crack in a concrete pit that was leaking water at its No.2
reactor in Fukushima, measuring 1,000 millisieverts of radiation
per hour. [ID:nL3E7F2039]

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s prime minister made his first visit to the country’s tsunami-devastated region on Saturday and entered a nuclear exclusion zone to meet workers grappling to end the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan spoke with refugees living in a makeshift camp in the fishing village of Rikuzentakata, decimated by the tsunamis which struck on March 11 when Japan was rocked by a massive earthquake, leaving 28,000 dead and missing.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s prime minister made his first visit to the country’s tsunami-devastated region on Saturday and entered a nuclear exclusion zone to meet workers grappling to end the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan spoke with refugees living in a makeshift camp in the fishing village of Rikuzentakata, decimated by the tsunamis which struck on March 11 when Japan was rocked by a massive earthquake, leaving 28,000 dead and missing.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s prime minister made his first visit to the country’s tsunami-devastated region on Saturday and entered a nuclear exclusion zone to meet workers grappling to end the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan spoke with refugees living in a makeshift camp in the fishing village of Rikuzentakata, decimated by the tsunamis which struck on March 11 when Japan was rocked by a massive earthquake, leaving 28,000 dead and missing.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said on Friday he was ready for a long fight to bring a quake-hit nuclear plant under control but was convinced Japan would overcome the world’s worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

“I am prepared for a long-term battle over the Fukushima nuclear plant and to win this battle,” he said in a nationally broadcast news conference as the country marked three weeks since a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered the crisis.

TOKYO (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on Thursday for a reform of global nuclear standards by the end of the year during a first visit by a foreign leader to Japan since the earthquake and tsunami that triggered its atomic disaster.

Group of 20 chairman Sarkozy said France wants to host a meeting of the bloc’s nuclear officials in May to fix new norms in the wake of the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Pressure grew on Thursday for Japan to expand an evacuation zone round its stricken nuclear plant where radiation hit 4,000 times legal limits in nearby sea and hindered the battle to contain the world’s worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl.

The quake and tsunami that battered the Fukushima Daiichi plant have also left more than 27,500 people dead or missing and are taking a heavy toll on the world’s third-biggest economy.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Pressure mounted on Japan on Thursday to expand the evacuation zone around its stricken nuclear power plants after high levels of radiation were found outside the zone and radioactivity in seawater reached more than 4,000 times its legal limit.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog suggested Japan consider widening its 20-km (12-mile) zone after high radiation was detected at twice that distance from the facility.