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 The Japanese nuclear crisis will not be resolved for another nine months, officials admitted yesterday, as they laid out the first comprehensive plan for tackling the problem.

According to foreign media outlets, the first step will involve “cold shutdown” of the plant’s reactor cores, when temperatures will be brought down to below 212F (100C).

In the second step, 60,000 tons of radioactive water flooding the plant will be "decreased" and decontaminated. Meanwhile, the reactors will be covered with a structure to stop radioactive material escaping.

Finally, the radiation that has spread across the 12-mile evacuation zone and beyond will be reduced and tens of thousands of residents allowed to return.

Tsunehisa Katsumata, the chairman of the plant's operator Tepco, admitted he did not know when that might happen, but Banri Kaieda, Japan's trade minister, said some could return home within six to nine months.