Page 3 - 2011 Disaster News Today

More than a decade after the Fukushima nuclear accident, officials of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator, still have no idea about the condition of the melted nuclear fuel in the No. 1 reactor. 

OKUMA, Fukushima Prefecture—Evacuees eager to finally return to their homes near the hobbled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant have been thrown into confusion over the way evacuation orders will be lifted.

College students have their heads shaved in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on April 20 to express their anger over the Japanese government’s plan to release treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant into the sea. (Takuya Suzuki) SEOUL--Japan is set to accept a South Korean proposal to establish a forum to discuss safety issues concerning its decision to discharge more than 1 million tons of treated contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima No...

Finance Minister Taro Aso prepares to attend a meeting of the Suga Cabinet. (Koichi Ueda) TAIPEI--Finance Minister Taro Aso’s comment about treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant prompted a reaction from Taiwan, which had been low key about Japan’s decision to dump that water into the ocean. Aso came under fire abroad when he said last week it would be safe to drink the water that will be released into the ocean from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The water will b...

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga hailed the start of COVID-19 vaccinations for senior citizens, but opp

Yoshio Satomi, right, director of the Genshiryoku Saigai Koshokan museum, speaks to visitors in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, on March 12 in front of a display made of debris and personal possessions of the dead. The exhibit is intended to show how evacuees were forced to give up searching for missing people after the 2011 nuclear crisis unfolded. (Shoko Rikimaru) IWAKI, Fukushima Prefecture--A hot spring inn here opened a museum about the Fukushima nuclear disaster to pass down lessons from the...

Yosuke Futomi uses underwater drones in his searches for remains and items of people missing since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. (Shigetaka Kodama) WATARI, Miyagi Prefecture--Haunting memories of the death of his brother have pushed Yosuke Futomi to continue searching the seabed here to help tsunami survivors gain a sense of closure. Futomi runs a marine sports facility in the town of Watari. But since 2016, he has volunteered to dive into the ocean for clues of those who...

Narumi Saijo in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, in February. She is motivated by her friend’s words of praise for having a unique point of view. (Shoko Mifune) ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--A high school dropout and shut-in, Narumi Saijo didnt feel comfortable leaving the confines of her home until one day when she had no choice.  On March 11, 2011, when Ishinomaki was rocked by a quake measuring an intensity of lower 6 on the Japanese scale of 7, Saijo had to grab her dog, Goma, and crawl ...

Feb. 19, 2021: Takayuki Tamura, left, and his wife, Hiromi, talk about the importance of staying safe in a natural disaster as they address students of the Iwadeyama Junior High School in Osaki, Miyagi Prefecture. An image of a memorial monument in Onagawa, also in the prefecture, can be seen in the background. (Takaharu Yagi) Editor’s note: This is the last of a four-part series retracing the lives of four families over the decade following the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsu...

Editor’s note: This is the third of a four-part series retracing the lives of four families over