Nuclear crisis enters 6th month (Japan)

Efforts to stabilize reactors at the quake-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant are at "Step 2" of a road map designed to end the crisis.

Five full months have passed since disaster flared following the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.

The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), operator of the plant, are aiming to bring the nuclear reactors to a cold shutdown so that residents evacuated from areas close to the facility can return to their homes.

Major challenges include stabilizing the treatment of radioactive water and suppressing the discharge of radioactive material from the containment vessels.

more..
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201108110240.html

87,000 still in limbo five months after quake
Grief continues as number of missing recedes
Kyodo

MORIOKA — Memorial services took place Thursday to mark the passing of five months since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, with survivors mourning the loss of their loved ones while gradually beginning to find comfort from signs of reconstruction.

More than 15,600 people have been confirmed dead and police continue to search for over 4,700 others who are still missing. Some 87,000 evacuees remain scattered throughout the country.

"I am reminded strongly once again today that we must work hard toward reconstruction," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in the morning in response to a reporter's question at his office in Tokyo.

The five-month commemoration of the disaster happened to fall around the nation's Bon festival, a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's deceased ancestors in mid-August.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110811x1.html?

How Japan's Fukushima disaster may exacerbate population woes
Japan's aging population is resulting in a quickly shrinking workforce and low prospects for growth. Engaging women in the workforce more fully could help, but there's cultural resistance.

Tokyo

This week Japan announced that its population has fallen for the second year in a row, which – along with a shrinking workforce – will pose huge challenges for its economy and society.

While these trends were set before the triad of disasters began with the March 11 earthquake, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster may exacerbate them.

“Unless the Japanese workforce makes some huge gains in productivity – and Japanese workers are already very productive – there are no prospects for growth in the domestic economy,” says Jo McBride, head of the Japanese Pension Industry Database.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2011/0811/How-Japan-s-Fukushima-disaster-may-exacerbate-population-woes

Search for missing schoolchildren continues 5 months after quake-triggered tsunami
ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi -- Police officers are combing through rubble and mud under the scorching heat around an elementary school here in a desperate search for schoolchildren and other local residents missing since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

At 2:46 p.m. on August 11, exactly 5 months after the Great East Japan Earthquake and deadly tsunami, the police officers searching the bed of the Kamayagawa river south of Okawa Elementary School laid down their shovels and observed a moment of silence. Of the 108 students at the school, 74 were claimed by the tsunami along with 10 of 13 staff.

more..
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110812p2a00m0na012000c.html

I don't care how "clean" TEPCO or the government said they made the area.

I would much rather go to higher ground. As high ground as I could get.