Disaster toll still incalculable

[AsahinaKimi]

Reconstruction effort, nuke crisis costs to test the administration

By KANAKO TAKAHARA
Staff writer/JapanTimes

Although a month has passed since the magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant on March 11, no one yet has a clear idea of when or how the radiation disaster will end.

But one thing is certain: Prime Minister Naoto Kan will have to take the lead in rebuilding 401 sq. km of tsunami-ravaged Tohoku — an area more than six times the size of the Yamanote loop — and help Tokyo Electric Power Co. compensate for the lives and industries hit by the nuclear crisis, a bill likely to amount to trillions of yen.

Strong political leadership and coordination will be required to meet such massive goals. But as the world closely watches each step Tokyo takes, critics are skeptical of the way the Kan administration is handling the crisis.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110412a4.html



Economic outlook dimmer a month after earthquake
By SHINYA AJIMA
Kyodo News

A month after the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, uncertainty over the country's economy has only escalated, with manufacturers crippled and the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant weighing heavily on business and consumer sentiment.By SHINYA AJIMA
Kyodo News


The government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan is struggling to secure funds for emergency spending on reconstruction at a time of fiscal difficulty, while the Bank of Japan has decided on an emergency loan program, only to be met with calls from lawmakers to do more.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20110412a1.html

[Adsos Letter]

1. Very sobering photos. I can't imagine they will be able to calculate the toll

until the reactor situations are finally under control. :(

[murielm99]

2. I guess the human toll worries me more.

That is incalculable to me. Even when people have jobs and homes restored, they will never be the same. The survivors will always live with the horror.

[Adsos Letter]

3. I agree. it is actually the human toll I was thinking of...

how much human/environmental/human-again damage will result from the ongoing disaster at those reactors. For instance, if one of those cores hits groundwater as some have theorized will happen. Or, simply a continuation of radiation leakage.