Green Blog: Sizing Up Health Impacts a Year After Fukushima

The clean-up at Fukushima after its tsunami-sparked nuclear meltdowns is unlike anything humanity has ever undertaken, Japan's prime minister said on Saturday during a tour of the plant.

TOKYO — Amid growing dissatisfaction with the slow pace of recovery, Japan marked the second anniversary Monday of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that left nearly 19,000 people dead or missing and has displaced more than 300,000. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the government intends to make “visible” reconstruction progress and accelerate resettlement of those left homeless by streamlining legal and administrative procedures many blame for the delays.

David Hunkar submits: The huge earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan also dealt a huge blow to the nuclear power industry when the world learned of radiation leaks from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant owned by Tokyo Electric Power Co. Germany ordered safety inspections of its aging plants and temporarily suspended operations of some plants.

Japan upgraded its nuclear emergency to a maximum seven on an international scale of atomic crises on Tuesday, the first time the ranking has been invoked since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.News of the raised alert comes as the country's nuclear safety watchdog saidthat radiation emissions equivalent to 10 percent of Chernobyl have leaked from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.The incident at the facility was sparked by last month's earthquake and tsunami, which killed more than 13,000 people, with around 14,500 people still missing.

Japan fell silent at 2:46 pm Monday as people across the country remembered the thousands killed by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake on March 11 and the monster tsunami it created.In the devastated city of Kesennuma, soldiers digging through rubble to search for some of the 15,000 people still listed as missing stopped to pay their respects.The minute's silence followed a message from Japan's prime minister who thanked the world for its support after the devastating disaster while the risk of a large radiation leak from a crippled nuclear plant began to fade.