Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda says the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant has reached a state of “cold shutdown”, bringing Japan's worst nuclear disaster under control for the first time since the plant was hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

Mr. Noda made the announcement during a nuclear task force meeting Friday

Stabilization of the reactors, whose molten cores spewed radioactive particles into the air and sea, marks the end of the second step of the clean-up. Step three involves the decommissioning of the damaged units, a process experts expect to last decades.

Declaring a cold shutdown was a government precondition for allowing some of the tens of thousands of residents evacuated from the area to return home. However, there will still be a no-go zone around the damaged reactors for years.