Six to Nine Months Before Japanese Nuclear Plant Safe

The Fukushima nuclear plant won't be completely shut down until 2012 as the public says its prime minister should resign.

Japan's badly damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant won't be safely shut down until the end of the year. The Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility responsible for the plant, told the Japanese government that it expected to plug all the plant's leaks within three months and achieve a full shutdown by 2012. That news comes as polls found a majority of the nation's residents think Prime Minister Naoto Kan should resign over his handling of the earthquake and subsequent nuclear crisis, the worst the world has seen since the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986. On the other hand, two-thirds of respondents polled said they wouldn't oppose a tax hike to help offset the $300-billion in damage caused by the March 11 disaster.