Clinton pledges US support for Japan

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged full support for quake-hit Japan as the operator of its stricken nuclear plant said it expects to achieve “cold shutdown” in six to nine months.

Japan’s embattled Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) offered the timeline more than five weeks after a giant quake and tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which has since leaked radiation into the air, soil and sea.

Clinton on a brief, largely symbolic stop in Tokyo, voiced solidarity and vowed the US would “do everything we can to support you as you come through this time of trial”.

“And we know you will emerge even stronger than before,” she said after meeting Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto.

Since the March 11 disaster, US forces stationed in Japan and beyond have launched a round-the-clock relief effort bringing supplies to the battered coast — dubbed Operation Tomodachi, which means “friend” in Japanese.

Clinton and Matsumoto said that they were launching a business partnership to support Japan’s reconstruction on its northeastern coast, where 13,778 people have been confirmed dead and 14,000 are still missing.

While details were vague, the heads of the US Chamber of Commerce and Japan’s business lobby Nippon Keidanren said they would discuss ways foreign companies can take part in the massive rebuilding.

Washington hopes the large-scale response can help reshape attitudes in Japan, which has been a staunch US ally for decades, but where many citizens bristle at what they see as American domination.

TEPCO’s chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said the utility aims to cool reactors and start reducing radiation from the explosion-charred facilities within three months.

Within six to nine months, TEPCO said in a statement, it expects to achieve “cold shutdowns” of all six reactors, a stable condition in which temperatures drop and radiation leaks fall dramatically.

TEPCO also said that an initial focus would be on preventing new hydrogen explosions in reactors by injecting nitrogen, and on avoiding further releases of radioactive water into the environment.

Trade and industry minister Banri Kaieda said that the roadmap would help move the nuclear crisis from the emergency phase into a stabilisation phase, but he also prodded TEPCO to move faster than the roadmap suggests.