Where To Begin? Rebuilding Japan

Survivors use a plastic bucket to get water from a well at the devastated town of Yamada, northeastern Japan. (AP/Yomiuri Shimbun, Takashi Ozaki)

When entire towns are washed away or turned into debris, how do you begin cleaning up and re-building? That’s the question facing Japanese authorities, who have to start the cleanup amid uncertainty over the fate of the country’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, disabled by last week’s earthquake and tsunami.

We speak with Yossi Sheffi, director of MIT’s Engineering Systems Division.

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