Japan says not expanding nuclear zone for now

VIENNA - Japan is not planning to expand

an evacuation zone around a stricken nuclear reactor right now

but this decision is not set in stone, a senior Japanese nuclear

official said in Vienna on Monday.

"For the time being we are not going to. But it does not

mean in the future we may (not) change that," Koichiro Nakamura,

a deputy director general of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial

Safety Agency (NISA), told reporters.

Japan's devastating quake and tsunami three weeks ago

heavily damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant,

forcing the government to create a 20-km (12 miles) evacuation

zone around the site.