Realtime Japan

The increasing accessibility and immediacy of the Internet makes it easier to remember that Japan is struggling right now.

It is important to recall throughout the day that the events unfolding in Japan and throughout the world are not happening at night while we are asleep for us to read in the news in the morning. The events are happening while we are walking through our own days, going to classes, work, meetings and scrolling through pictures on Facebook.

Therefore, in this post I will discuss some of the latest developments coming out of Japan.

According to Reuters.com, Japanese engineers are currently struggling to get control over the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant 150 miles north of capital Tokyo. The plant was damaged by the earthquake and tsunami. It poses a serious threat to those in the area.

Only two of the six reactors at the plant are considered stable.

“Their dilemma is that they must keep pumping water to prevent overheating and meltdowns, but that creates more contaminated water that must be pumped out and kept somewhere when they are running out of storage space,” Mayumi Negishi writes in the article.

One of the reactors has emitted radiation at over 1,000 millisieverts an hour, which means that “a worker who entered the room would top his annual radiation exposure quota in just 15 minutes.”

No one knows how long it will take to get control of the plant. The main risk posed is that leaking water could seep into the soil and the ocean, contaminating the crops and the water.

The Washington Post reported this morning that Tokyo Electric Power Co. has begun dumping water tainted with “low levels of radioactivity” into the Pacific Ocean. The company said it could release up to 11,500 tons of this water into the sea.

The Reuters article estimates that the site will likely become “no man’s land.” It could become possible to live and work a few kilometers away, but recycling and transporting the materials are both more or less unfeasible. Experts say that the clean-up of this mess will take decades.

Meanwhile, in a joint, three-day search between Friday morning and Sunday afternoon, 69 more bodies were found, according to CNN. The search was conducted by Japanese and U.S. militaries at a strategic time when the tides would be low and allow for better access to tidal flats.

The current overall confirmed death toll now stands at 12,087 people, with 15,552 missing or unaccounted for and 2,876 injured.

Buses have begun evacuating 1,120 people from shelters in the town of Minamisanriku. The community’s major encouraged residents to go to other cities while temporary housing is being built.

“Over 300 more people have applied for evacuation to other cities and towns, but the Miyagi prefecture government did not have any other evacuations planned Sunday,” Negishi writes.

It is clear that Japan cannot rely on the current trendiness of giving to pick itself back up as people and as a country. It has decades upon decades of work ahead.