You're reading: Developments in Japan’s disasters, nuclear crisis

— POLICE SAY DISASTER DEATH TOLL TO TOP 18,000. Police officials estimate that the toll from the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami will exceed 18,000 deaths.

One of the hardest-hit prefectures, Miyagi, estimates that the deaths will top 15,000 in that region alone, police spokesman Hitoshi Sugawara says. Police in other devastated areas decline to estimate eventual tolls, but say the confirmed deaths in their areas already number nearly 3,400. The National Police Agency says the overall number of bodies collected so far stands at 8,649, while 13,262 people have been listed as missing. In addition to Miyagi’s estimate of more than 15,000 dead, police confirm nearly 3,400 deaths in Iwate, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Aomori and Chiba provinces, as well as seven dead in Tokyo.

— DAMAGED NUCLEAR PLANT EVACUATED DUE TO SMOKE. Emergency workers trying to cool down the radiation-leaking Fukushima Dai-ichi plant are pulled out after gray smoke rises from the storage pool of its reactor units. Plant officials have been battling to cool reactors and spent fuel pools to the complex control after it was damaged in the quake and tsunami.

— WORLD BANK SAYS RECONSTRUCTION MAY TAKE 5 YEARS. The World Bank says Japan may need five years to rebuild from the earthquake and tsunami, which have caused up to $235 billion in damage. The disaster will likely shave up to 0.5 percentage point from the country’s economic growth this year, the bank says in a report, adding that the impact will be concentrated in the first half of the year. The bank cites damage estimates between $123 billion and $235 billion, and cost to private insurers of between $14 billion and $33 billion. It says the government will spend $12 billion on reconstruction in the current national budget and "much more" in the next one.

— NISSAN TO RESTART MORE AUTO, PARTS PLANTS IN JAPAN. Nissan plans to resume auto and parts production at more Japanese factories this week, but it may be several months before inventories and other elements of the country’s auto industry return to normal. The automaker says it will resume production of parts at five plants Monday. It then plans to resume vehicle production Thursday as long as supplies last. Most of Japan’s auto industry shut down after the March 11 disaster. Nissan and other carmakers have started resuming some production, but the industry still faces rolling blackouts and infrastructure problems that may hamper it until mid or late summer. Nissan says the restarted plants will not be at full production.