Fukushima Two Years Later

It is still a dangerous place.  Continuous swells of groundwater pour into the reactor buildings, become radioactive and threaten to swamp a critical cooling system.  Tepco is storing this contaminated water in tanks on the plant grounds.  However, they are running out of tanks.  They dug some underground pits to store some of the water but the pits have sprung leaks. So, now they will chop down a small forest on the plant's southern edge to make room for hundreds more tanks.  Hopefully, they will have these tanks before the water leaks into the ocean.

There is a feeling among many experts that many of the problems with the cleanup are due to the incestuous relationship of the nuclear industry and its regulators.  For example, a separate committee created by the government to oversee the cleanup is loaded with industry insiders, including from the Ministry of Trade, in charge of promoting nuclear energy, and nuclear reactor manufacturers like Toshiba and Hitachi.