Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan has warned that the shutdown of several nuclear reactors² is likely to lead to a shortfall in electricity supply.

日本首相菅直人警告道，几座核电站的关闭将有可能导致电力供应不足。

There have been 11 nuclear reactors shut down, including at Fukushima
About a third of Japan's energy is from nuclear power, and with a big proportion of capacity hit by Friday's quake it will make outages（中断供应） necessary.

The east of the country is likely to face substantial shortages, Industry Minister Banri Kaieda also said.

There are fears of further explosions at the Fukushima nuclear power station.

'Stoppages'

Mr Kan said electricity supplies were limited to people in the north-east areas worst hit by Friday's earthquake and tsunami³.

He asked industry to cut down on its energy usage and for people to be patient as it could take days for supplies to be restored.

"We are trying to secure some support electricity from other facilities and we have asked industry to cut down on their electricity usage," Mr Kan said.

"However we do not have any prospect⁴ of restoring the electricity supply within the next few days.

"Therefore there is a good possibility that we will remain with a lack of electricity and there is also a possibility of large scale electricity stoppage and these kind of large scale stoppages will affect people's lives and also industrial activities."

On Saturday a huge explosion rocked one of its six reactor¹ units, reactor number 1, and sea water was used to cool it down, meaning the reactor is unlikely to be used again.

Technicians are now battling to cool reactor 3.

In total, 11 of the 50 nuclear reactors in Japan, those located in the worst affected⁵ areas, were shut down following the earthquake.

Estimates put the reduction in output at Japan's nuclear power generators⁶ at anything from 25% to 50%.