Fukushima nuclear complex, in north eastern Japan, severely damaged in devastating on March 11, is no longer operational and will most probably be shut down, as it has caused serious problems, stated Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. The number of dead and missing surpasses 20,000.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano stated that the government must follow a formal procedure and that they cannot give statement on the NP’s future, but that whether Fukushima will work again is clear when one objectively reviews the situation.

This is the first time a governmental official mentioned the possibility of shutting the nuclear plant down, once the control is assumed over its overheated reactors.

After the quake, because the cooling systems were not functioning, a series of explosions and fires occurred, and ever since then the engineers are trying to keep rods and used nuclear fuel storage pools under water. When the overheated rods are exposed to the air, they start melting and emitting large quantities of dangerous radioactive particles into the atmosphere.

On Sunday, the engineers managed to conduct the electricity to the reactor No. 2, which was successfully connected to powerline on Saturday, and in reactors No. 5 and 6 the state is stabile.

This morning in Fukushima, after a few hours break, throwing water over the overheated reactors was continued, and the pressure in reactor No. 3, which started increasing, was stabilised later.

The number of persons that lost their lives or are unaccounted for in Japans surpassed 20.000 on Sunday. The number could still be much higher, Kyodo reports.

Deaths of 8.133 were officially confirmed, and 12.272 are missing after the quake and the tsunami that devastated large area along the Pacific coast of northern Japanese island of Honshu.

More than 360,000 evacuated Japanese citizens continue struggling with the cold in temporary shelters in 14 prefectures, including the capital Tokyo.