Human flotsam, legal fallout: Japan's Tsunami and nuclear meltdown

The article focuses on the legal professionals and the problems disaster victims face. The earthquake and tsunami that hit northeast Japan on March 11, 2011, devastated 300 miles of coastline, inundated low-lying cities, towns, and villages, and knocked out the cooling systems of all six reactors in Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). The knockout of the cooling systems resulted in partial to total meltdowns in three of the reactor cores, and pressure soared within the containment vessels. Both TEPCO and the central government are targets of widespread and bitter criticism, both over their handling of the crisis and of their various failures to prepare adequately for such an event. When human needs are greatest, legal professionals sometimes step forward, moved by duty, conscience, circumstance, a quest for reputation, or the scent of profit.