Japan Begins Massive Rescue and Relief Efforts While Warily Eyeing Fukushima’s Nuclear Plant
Tokyo Electric, which operates the reactor, has been struggling to get coolant flowing to the reactor since the massive 8.9 quake struck, and pressure within the reactor containment has risen from 1.5 times design limits to 2.1 times - and there’s no sign that they can control the reactor despite their best efforts to date.
For all the damage and devastation, the damage could have been even more severe - the massive quake did not cause collapses of skyscrapers in Tokyo and other affected cities, and it is a testament to the country’s building codes that they did not do so.
Yet, there was not much anyone could have done to thwart the devastating effects of the tsunami that roared ashore and wiped out communities up and down the Japanese coast, particularly in and around Sendai.