Japan's nuclear crisis to take 6-9 months to bring under control

In international news, Japan announced a plan Sunday that would bring the crisis over  the crippled nuclear power plant under control. Tokyo Electric Power Company’s chairman said the plan included containing radiation within the reactor and eventually removing the nuclear fuel. The crisis would be under control within six to nine months, with the possibility of some residents returning home.

Tokyo Electric Power Company has failed to resolve the nuclear crisis of the Fukushima Daiichi complex, more than a month after the devastating earthquake and tsunami. In addition to reducing the levels of leaking radiation, the company is focusing on decontaminating sea water by dumping sandbags filled with minerals that absorb radioactive cesium.

Plans were also discussed for recycling water contaminated by the radiation, and removing salt from the seawater used to cool down the reactors, as it was also corroding them.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced on Sunday that the US stood by Japan. The US has provided the biggest bilateral humanitarian mission ever conducted in Japan with roughly twenty thousand troops mobilized to help Japan cope with the damages and the nuclear crisis.