JAPAN STILL STRUGGLES – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:  There clearly has been some radiation damage from the Japanese nuclear plant crippled in the recent earthquake.  But, day by day, technicians are making progress.  The damage overall from the quake and tsunami, human and economic, is still being assessed.  The effects will be felt for years.  From The New York Times:

TOKYO — The work of digging out and rebuilding continued in Japan on Saturday, more than two weeks after a devastating earthquake and tsunami, as a government spokesman said he could not predict when the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex would be brought under control.

Workers on Saturday resumed repair efforts Saturday, restoring lighting to the central control room of the No. 2 unit, Tokyo Electric Power said. It was another step toward restarting the cooling system that shut down after the disaster. That leaves only the No. 4 unit without lighting.

They also began pumping in fresh water to the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 units, after days of spraying the reactors with corrosive salt water. The United States military was aiding the effort, sending barges with 500,000 gallons of fresh water from the Yokosuka naval base. Those were expected to arrive later Saturday.

And...

The government has said the cost of reconstruction could reach $300 billion or more, which would make it the most destructive natural disaster ever. And that leaves unanswered what will be the ultimate cost of the reactor cleanup.

In Tokyo, where some goods remain in short supply, the mood remains subdued more than two weeks after the quake, dampened by the knowledge of the struggle at the power plant more than 100 miles north of the city and concern for the tens of thousands of quake and tsunami survivors who are only now starting to think of rebuilding their lives.

Yet, there is no looting, no rioting, and there are no "international funds" that mysteriously disappear.  There is, very legitimately, anger over apparent corruption involving safety reviews at the crippled plant. 

Japan will rebuild, but the economic damage from the quake could easily affect our own economy here.  We'll know more about that as the months progress.

March 26, 2011