Journalists and photographers are driven past sea defenses next to the Fukushima nuclear power plant that has again gained media attention. Though the Japanese government announced last December that the plant had reached “cold shutdown” — a safe state achieved when temperatures inside the reactors stay below boiling point and radioactive leaks are kept to a minimum — fears arose this month that fuel in the No. 2 reactor was heating up again.

Credit: Issei Kato/Reuters