Japanese delegation to visit Chernobyl plant in Ukraine.

The Japanese delegation wants to have first-hand information about the situation at the Chernobyl plant and to learn whatever lessons possible to prevent any such accidents, and to make use of Ukraine's experience in the clean-up operations after the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant, Yokomichi said yesterday.

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude nine earthquake and a subsequent ten-meter-high tsunami in Japan's north-eastern provinces destroyed the cooling system of the Fukushima-1 plant that resulted in the failure of the plant's power units. Currently, restoration works are in progress on the territories hit by the earthquake.

The Chernobyl nuclear plant accident occurred on April 26, 1986. After an explosion at the plant's fourth unit, a 30-kilometer belt around the plant was declared an exclusion zone from where people were evacuated.

Now, assisted by donor countries and international organizations, Ukraine is taking measures to overcome the Chernobyl disaster consequences and to make the area around the plant ecologically safe.