Tokyo, April 24 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), that earlier operated the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant, will not be allowed to resume reactor operations at the plant, the governor of Fukushima prefecture has said.
A magnitude-9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan March 11 triggered a crisis at the Fukushima plant, which is being rated at the same level as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
According to Kyodo News agency, Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato told TEPCO president Masataka Shimizu: "A resumption of plant operations must be impossible."
The plant operator has been struggling to stop radioactive leak from the plant's crippled reactors. Almost 80,000 people living within the evacuation zone have been asked to flee their homes.
The quake-tsunami left up to 28,000 people dead or missing.