By Julie Makinen and Thomas H. Maugh II
Los Angeles Times
TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Friday he would convene a national council on rebuilding within 10 days as U.S. and Japanese forces launched a massive effort to locate the bodies of more than 16,000 people still listed as missing three weeks after the giant March 11 tsunami and earthquake.
Kan said resolving the crisis at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant would take a while, but he pledged to do “whatever it takes to win the battle” there and brushed off talk that Tokyo Electric Power Co., which runs the facility, would be nationalized. Tepco, he said, must do what it can to clean up radioactive leaks at the plant and compensate those affected by the accident.
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency once again questioned very high radioactivity readings at the plant, and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that at least one of the reactor fuel cores may have suffered a 70 percent meltdown.