Reuters Investigates

Two more special reports from Japan today: first up, a look at how globalization has made companies around the world vulnerable to a shock like the earthquake. ”Disasters show flaws in just-in-time production.”

The PDF version, here, has a nice graphic showing the location of Japan’s ports, some of which have been hard hit by the disaster.

The second report takes another look at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. It makes worrying reading:

TOKYO (Reuters)- When the massive tsunami smacked into Fukushima Daiichi, the nuclear power plant was stacked high with more uranium than it was originally designed to hold and had repeatedly missed mandatory safety checks over the past decade.

 The Fukushima plant that has spun into partial meltdown and spewed out plumes of radiation had become a growing depot for spent fuel in a way the American engineers who designed the reactors 50 years earlier had never envisioned, according to company documents and outside experts.

The full story is here: “Fuel storage, safety issues vexed Japan plant.”

For more special reports on Japan and the earthquake, see below:

How Japan’s nuclear disaster happened: http://link.reuters.com/guz58r

Can Japan find new deal after triple whammy?: http://r.reuters.com/mak58r

Advanced economies recover faster in disaster: http://r.reuters.com/mak58r

Why Japan will avert a fiscal meltdown: http://link.reuters.com/web68r

In Chernobyl, a disaster persists: http://link.reuters.com/dyn58r

Radiation fears may be greatly exaggerated: http://link.reuters.com/zyd68r