The US Air Force has delivered coolant to a Japanese nuclear plant which was jolted by the biggest earthquake in Japan's history, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday.
"We just had our Air Force assets in Japan transport some really important coolant to one of the nuclear plants," Clinton said in Washington.
"You know Japan is very reliant on nuclear power, and they have very high engineering standards, but one of their plants came under a lot of stress with the earthquake and didn't have enough coolant," the chief US diplomat said.
"And so Air Force planes were able to deliver that," she said.
She did not identify the plant but the Japanese government on Friday told thousands of residents living by a nuclear plant in Fukushima to evacuate after its cooling system failed in the earthquake.
The Japanese government declared an atomic power emergency but said no radiation leaks were detected among its reactors after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck Friday, triggering devastating tsunamis that killed hundreds of people.
The government issued the advice for nearly 6,000 residents living within a three-kilometer (two-mile) radius of the Fukushima No. 1 plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The plant had shut down after the quake, but a reactor cooling system failure had led to the evacuation instruction. Jiji press reported that the cooling system would be restored by around 1:30 am (1630 GMT).
The government said the situation was "under control."
