Who’s worried about nuclear power?
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that China has no plans to alter its nuclear program in the wake of Japan’s catastrophe:
“There is a higher standard in China than the world’s average” for building nuclear power plants, Xu Mi, an official at China National Nuclear Corp., said.”
Not to …
Given the enormity of human suffering and risk of an atomic catastrophe in Japan, it seems almost indecent to be offering up commentary out of safe, comfy Europe. But despite the understandably shocked and fearful reaction to a possible reactor melt down at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power station, it’s probably worth questioning even …
The specter of a full-blown nuclear disaster loomed over Japan on Tuesday morning after the third reactor explosion in four days occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant just after 6AM. By noon, employees were scrambling to contain a fire in another reactor, and reports were trickling in that radiation had been detected in …
Tomeo Suguwara leans into the hill, carrying a large, empty straw basket. Behind him, a few houses are left where a neighborhood used to be. For the third day in a row, the farmer has been feeding a calf he found wandering around the detritus of people’s kitchens and bedrooms after the tsunami swept through this village in Kesennuma. …
When Koji Haga looked toward the shore and saw the massive earthquake shuddering through his village of Akaushi on March 11, he knew what would come next. After all, every school child in the area is taught that roughly every 50 years, a seismic seizure triggers a giant wave that engulfs this tightknit fishing community. It had been a …
Report from TIME’s Krista Mahr in Kesennuma:
There are few good places to be right now in what’s left of this savaged corner of Kesennuma, Japan. But the gymnasium at the Hibiki High School is the very last place anybody wants to have to visit. On a hilltop over the washed-out mud flats where houses stood this time last week, the …
Here are some initial thoughts on Japan’s disaster zone from TIME’s Hannah Beech and Krista Mahr:
This is a country that lives by timetables, that prides itself on predicting how to get people to places within the minute even under the most unusual circumstances. But no one could have predicted the unleashing of the worst-ever …
I visited Bihar for the first time in 1998, when its reputation for lawlessness was well-deserved. Traveling by train from Delhi, you knew exactly when you crossed the border into Bihar. That’s when groups of aggressive, ticket-less riders suddenly jumped onto the train, comfortable in the knowledge that, in Bihar, no one would …
It’s budget time in Asia, and the men in uniform (along with their numerous plainclothes colleagues) must be thrilled. In China, where the rubber-stamp National People’s Congress (NPC) has gathered for its annual confab in Beijing, the military was gifted a 12.7% increase in spending, bringing its yearly coffers to $91.5 billion. …
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera was riding high in the polls last October when he led the globally celebrated rescue of 33 trapped miners. But since then, his 63% approval rating has dropped below 50% as the glow of the rescue fades and Chileans ponder the harder task before them: rebuilding the central swath of the country hit by …
Is the dramatic mystery surrounding the spy scandal at French carmaker Renault deflating like a particularly gravity-prone soufflé? That seems to be the main conclusion of recent media reports contrasting earlier allegations that China, international espionage rings, and just about any other convenient suspect was behind the purportedly …
This terrific video comes via TIME’s Multimedia Director Craig Duff, who offers the following introduction:
If peacemakers are indeed blessed, as a famous sermon once said, then Etweda Cooper can think big. As a founder of the Liberian Women’s Initiative, Cooper – who is better known as ‘Sugars’ Cooper – led demonstrations and …
