Fukushima information line to close

The Federal Health Office is on Saturday shutting its information line on the nuclear catastrophe in Japan.

The telephone line was set up on March 16 to deal with urgent questions from the public, five days after Japan’s northeastern coast was struck by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and devastating tsunami, which crippled a nuclear power plant and led to the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.

Around 800 calls were registered, the health office said on Thursday, adding that 100 or so were made in the initial days after the disaster but interest had since dwindled.

Seven weeks after the earthquake and tsunami, some 130,000 people are still living in about 2,500 shelters. The government has promised to build 30,000 temporary homes for them by the end of May and another 70,000 after that.