Everybody’s probably read an outline of the news by now: TEPCO, the operator of the crippled nuclear plant, has laid out a plan to stabilize the damaged reactors that would allow people to return to their homes within “six to nine months“. Which may be a little optimistic, since the Packbots (“which resemble drafting lamps on tank-like treads”) on loan from a Massachusetts company and the miniature remote-controlled helicopter drones reported back that radioactivity levels in the two worst damaged units reach in an hour as much as workers in the US nuclear industry are allowed to accumulate in a year.
But since it’s not on everybody’s daily reading list, I wanted to draw attention to the Guardian‘s excellent coverage, which runs the gamut from a Datablog (“Facts are sacred”) updated daily to commentary on disaster capitalism and the “Half-Life of Disaster“; a photographic series of “Salvaged memories from Japan”; and a great many unforgettable stories about the people who wil be putting their lives back together for many years to come.