Updated: March 8, 2013 3:25 AM EST AP PHOTOS: Images from
Japan's nuclear disasterThe Associated Press Two years after a
powerful earthquake and tsunami wrecked Japan's Fukushima Dai-
Ichi nuclear plant, many towns nearby remain abandoned, too
affected by radiation for residents to return for more than
short visits. About 160,000 people were displaced by the nuclear
disaster, and even some areas outside the 20-kilometer (12-mile)
zone that initially was completely off-limits are too
contaminated to be cleaned up in the foreseeable future. In
others, work is proceeding on cleaning soil, leaves, grass and
buildings to help reduce radiation to safer levels. It remains
unclear how effective the cleanup will be or how many people
will eventually return to their homes, given fears over
potential risks from the radiation and the lack of jobs in an
area that depended mainly on farming, fishing and work at the
now defunct nuclear plant. For now, the area is mostly deserted,
the fields and homes overgrown with weeds. He