Page 2 - 2011 Disaster News Today

SENDAI—On a chilly night in early February, Masatoshi Suzuki hauled a black plastic bag containing four macaque carcasses into his lab at Tohoku University.

Nearly 60 percent of the mayors of 42 municipalities in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures oppose the planned discharge of accumulated water from the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed.

OKUMA, Fukushima Prefecture--Eleven years after the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was ravaged by a meltdown following a massive earthquake and tsunami, the plant now looks like a sprawling construction site.

ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture—A school building here that was destroyed in a water-fire combination during the 2011 tsunami has been rebuilt into a disaster memorial.

Monuments stand in areas that were the scenes of unfathomable destruction and misery 11 years ago.

More than a decade after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, the government is shifting the focus of reconstruction spending and drastically reducing the amount spent.

Japan on March 11 marked the 11th anniversary of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that devastated the countrys northeastern region in 2011 and left more than 15,000 dead.

Singer and songwriter Mika Gorai will release a song about her hometown, Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, to mark the 11th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.

To alleviate negative publicity, the government plans to quadruple the number of tritium-monitoring points in the ocean ahead of planned release of water accumulating at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Shovel loaders digging pits at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on Jan. 17 were a rare sign of progress in the government’s contentious water-discharge plan at the stricken site.