Japan ready for ‘long fight’ at nuclear plant

JAPANESE Prime Minister Naoto Kan said yesterday 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 Chernobyl 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 three weeks after a massive earthquake and tsunami.

“We cannot say that the plant has been sufficiently stabilised. But we are preparing for all kinds of situations and I am convinced that the plant can be stabilised,” Kan said, promising a quake relief budget by the end of April.