Japan is set to announce that engineers have brought the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to a "cold shut-down condition", nine months after the earthquake and tsunami.
PM Yoshihiko Noda is expected to make the announcement later on Friday.
Declaring a cold shut-down condition is seen as a key milestone in efforts to bring the plant under control.
But the government says it will take decades to completely dismantle the plant.
The six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was badly damaged by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. Blasts occurred at four of the reactors after waves knocked out vital cooling systems.
Workers at the plant, which is operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), have been using sea water to cool the reactors. Waste water has built up and some contaminated liquid has been released into the sea.
A 20km (12m) exclusion zone remains in place around the plant.
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