AlHijjah 29, 1432, Nov 25, 2011, SPA -- Japan is to expand its nuclear safety checks to include fuel-reprocessing and storage facilities in response to a nuclear accident spawned by March's earthquake and tsunami, the government said Friday, according to dpa. The nuclear safety agency was to instruct the operators of the facilities to carry out so-called stress tests and report their results by the end of April, industry minister Yukio Edano said. The ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency imposed the checks on nuclear power plant operators in July. The tests were designed to test the resistance of the country's 54 nuclear reactors to natural disasters. All but 11 are currently shut down for inspection, and authorities are facing stiff opposition to restarting them from local residents. The government also said Friday it would consider buying up contaminated private land near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which was left leaking radioactive material after it was hit by the March disaster. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said residents of some areas within the 20-kilometre-radius evacuated zone might not be able to return home despite the government's clean-up operation.
