Nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant,
which was badly damaged by the massive earthquake and tsunami
that hit Japan in March, have finally been stabilized, according
to the country's Prime Minister, Yoshihiko Noda. The
announcement followed the "cold shutdown" of the breached
reactors, which were cooled using seawater. "The nuclear
reactors have reached a state of cold shutdown, and therefore we
can now confirm that we have come to the end of the accident
phase of the actual reactors," Noda told a news conference on
Friday, according to BBC News. "We are now moving from trying to
stabilize the nuclear reactors to decommissioning them." Noda
went on to promise that the Japanese government would move into
this next phase safely while focusing on cleaning up leaked
radioisotopes around the plant. Earlier last week, the Japanese
government stated that clean up and full decommissioning would
take about 40 years. Many of the fears that surfaced in the
immediate aftermath of the accident—such