2,636 still unaccounted for, 3 years after Tohoku disaster

Terribly sad to have lost someone(s) and not be able to put to them rest.

2,636 people is just too many to comprehend. My heartfelt sympathies to their families. I hope in time, they can find some peace even without having a proper funeral.

And still people can not go home or even get money from TEPCO to make up for their lack of intelligence on how to safely run nuclear reactors or the wisdom not to place emergency generators in basements so they could not be sitting under water.

TEPCO's hands are deep into the government's banking accounts on this one.

3 years after the disaster, we still can't stop the nuclear power plants. What the hell is going on.

What do you mean, "Stop the nuclear power plants"? All of Japan's 50 operable reactors are currently shut down.

Do you mean, "eliminate nuclear power from Japan"? That's not so easily done in 3, 5, or even ten years.

What's going on? A lack of suitable alternatives that increase Japan's energy self-sufficiency in lieu of nuclear power. As a result of no viable -- not "pie-in-the-sky," "feel-good" concepts -- alternatives to nuclear, Japan is bleeding out $34.9 billion per year to international energy markets, the trade deficit shot up 65% from 2012 to 2013, and energy generation costs of all forms besides nuclear increased by 56%. All of these costs are being passed on to a Japanese consumer that is still reeling from a 18-year-long recession, the costs of rebuilding the still-devastated Tohoku area, and now an increase in the consumption tax. That's what's going on.

LFR - well put. 100% on point.

and many of the survivors in the Tohoku region are reporting sights of GHOSTS, this is not a joke. Many people up there swear the ghosts of those who have not been found, or reported, or identified well are kind of in LIMBO. As is the survivors already did not have enough to worry about.

Please let it go Japan, give some closure, they are lost, thousands sadly would have been washed out to sea.

I hope this doesn't get taken the wrong way, but I wonder if some of the missing took this opportunity to walk away while everythihg was going crazy around them. If you had huge debts, or whatever, this would be the time to move to a different area and start a new life. Maybe that is why some people are seeing ghosts as well! There was a story a few weeks back about a husband who was frustrated with the search for his missing wife, so he got a scuba license to look for her himself. What does he expect to find after three years? I know these people want closure, but I think this is one time they cannot get it. Perhpas like the families of the Malaysian Airliner.

Meanwhile TEPCO posts record profits, and thousands still live in "temporary housing" akin to shantytowns with little hope of ever seeing their family homes, or anything like it, again. But, hey, the 2020 Olympics will fix everything, according to Mr. Abe. Never mind irradiating the sea and the suffering people. This is truly a point of shame for Japan. It's been two years, these people deserve so much more from their government and other groups responsible. It makes me sad just thinking about it.

You mean the better alternative is, having one of the nuclear plants blow up, yet again, and turn Japan into an inhabitable wasteland? Now THAT is a so called realistic approach.

No, that's what's sometimes called irrational hysteria.

By responses it is easy to see who was not affected by the Tsunami. Nobody thoughtful will eat any seafood again.Nobody sane will want nuclear power.

People are going to have to think for themselves on this one. Government or TEPCO isn't riding to the rescue. Weirder, people north of Ishinomiya are getting reading rebuild their washed away town and schools on the same flat exposed land. Hidebound thinking at its finest.

Is there any serious consideration of energy saving and alternative, sustainable energy? I hear rumors, but don't see much in the news at all. Not very encouraging. Opening up the npp is just too damned risky, don't you think?

I hope the relatives of the missing can get some closure some time. Perhaps it is time for the NPA to declare the missing dead.