And The Band Played On …

The BBC tells us about “progress” in Japan

Electricity has been restored to three reactors at the Japanese nuclear plant wrecked by fire and explosions after the 11 March quake and tsunami.
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Engineers have restored power to three reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and hope to test water pumps soon.
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A plant spokesman says some workers were temporarily evacuated from the complex after grey smoke was seen rising from the No 3 reactor.

Reports said the smoke appeared to have come from a pool where the reactor’s spent fuel rods are kept.

Radiation levels did not appear to have risen significantly though after the smoke was spotted, Japan’s nuclear safety agency said.

White smoke was later seen rising from the No 2 reactor, the agency said.
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More than 350,000 people are still living in evacuation centres in northern and eastern Japan.

There are shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine in the shelters, officials say.

Some aid from foreign countries has started to arrive, and the government has started the process of finding temporary housing in other parts of the country for those made homeless.

Nearly 900,000 households are still without water.

They have electricity that isn’t powering anything, and another artificial time target has been missed.

The problems are coming from the spent fuel pools, but the efforts are being focused on the containment structures. They are still spraying water from a “cannon”, instead of sticking a pipe through the exposed framework on the side of the building and putting the water where it is needed.

After a week they haven’t worked out a decent supply system for the shelters, as aid is arriving by ship from around the world. This is the modern corporate government in action or inaction.