Japan activist rams gate of nuclear plant near stricken reactors

(Reuters) - A man drove his truck into the compound of a nuclear power plant on Thursday just miles from Japan's quake-stricken reactors, managing to evade police for two hours and embarrassing the country's already heavily criticized nuclear authorities.

He had driven inside the government's 20 km (12.5 mile) evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant which has been leaking radiation after it was by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The man's motives were unclear but he appears to have been a right-wing activist. Apart from breaking down a gate to get in, he caused no other damage.

"At 12:21 this afternoon, a man in a propaganda truck drove up to the main gate of Fukushima Daiichi plant and demanded entry. The plant's personnel refused, so the truck then drove to Daini (nuclear plant, 12 km away)," Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told a daily news briefing.

"Being refused entry at the main gate there, he went around to the western side gate, rammed it, and entered," said Nishiyama, who looked surprised at the interest shown by reporters in the incident.

The man had driven around the area briefly before leaving. He was eventually caught two hours later after a police chase.

Right-wing activists driving around city streets in loudspeaker trucks are a familiar sight in Japan, where they are known for their vocal criticism of the government on a wide variety of policy issues.

Asked whether this raised questions about security, Nishiyama said: "At both Daiichi and Daini, everything possible is being done on the security front. But there is the radioactivity, and there is some question as to whether every nook and cranny in the area was secure."

Japan's nuclear authorities, and the company running the quake-hit reactor in particular, have been strongly criticized over the lack of preparedness for disaster at the nuclear plant and for their slow response once it was damaged.

After he was caught by police, the man was taken to a facility to be decontaminated.

(Reporting by Chizu Nomiyama and Elaine Lies, editing by Jonathan Thatcher)