Laid waste by a nuclear disaster a decade ago, Fukushima Prefecture is still struggling to recover, even as the government tries to bring people and jobs back to former ghost towns by pouring in trillions of yen to decontaminate and rebuild. But reconstruction efforts, from the mundane -- supermarkets and transport infrastructure -- to a cutting-edge hydrogen energy plant, have yet to entice more than a small fraction of the former population to return. As the country marks the 10th anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown, parts of the prefecture are still off limits, and it remains a laggard in recovery. Its future is clouded by the 30 to 40 years it may take to decommission the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, near which massive amounts of treated radioactive water are in storage. The town of Namie, where a stone monument lists about 200 townspeople who died in the tsunami, emptied out overnight following the accident at the nuclear plant about 8 kilometers south.

A wildfire broke out over the weekend in an uninhabited portion of Japan's Fukushima prefecture, sparking concerns that the blaze might spread airborne radiation. The fire started on Mount Juman in Namie, where radiation has remained high enough since the 2011 disaster for officials to continue declaring it a "difficult-to-return zone." Eight helicopters from Fukushima, Miyagi and Gunma prefectures were dispatched to the site, Japanese newspaper the Mainichi reported Monday. When those helicopters couldn't stop the flames, local officials called in the Ground Self-Defense Force, a branch of the Japanese military, to help. The fire was likely started by lightning in the uninhabited region, the Mainichi reported.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is touching every technology sector around the world, and it's having a significant impact on how enterprises and consumers interact with machines and devices. TechRepublic talked to IoT experts in a range of disciplines to find out what they think the biggest trends will be in 2017. Participants were Kevin Curran, IEEE senior member and senior lecturer in computer science at Ulster University; Francesco Cetraro, head of registrations, .cloud; Artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, healthcare IoT, industrial IoT, and wearables are some of the topics of conversation about where the Internet of Things is headed in 2017. Kevin Curran: "AI, and machine learning in particular, is the process of building a scientific model after discovering knowledge from a data set. It is the complex computation process of automatic pattern recognition and intelligent decision making based on training sample data. AI techniques can replicate some specific elements of intellectual ability. Computers can already solve problems in limited realms. The basic idea of AI is simple but its execution is complicated. First, the AI algorithm gathers facts about a situation through sensors or human input. The computer compares this information to stored data and decides what the information signifies. The computer runs through various possible actions and predicts which action will be most successful based on the collected information. The IT giants such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and others have all been using AI techniques in various research projects. Google acquired DeepMind technologies who use neural networks and deep learning methods that deploy low-level transistor networks to produce high-level effects."

The Internet of Things (IoT) is touching every technology sector around the world, and it's having a significant impact on how enterprises and consumers interact with machines and devices. TechRepublic talked to IoT experts in a range of disciplines to find out what they think the biggest trends will be in 2017. Participants were Kevin Curran, IEEE senior member and senior lecturer in computer science at Ulster University; Francesco Cetraro, head of registrations, .cloud; Artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, healthcare IoT, industrial IoT, and wearables are some of the topics of conversation about where the Internet of Things is headed in 2017. Diabetics have been waiting for years for better technology to manage their condition. Some got tired of waiting and hacked together an open source hardware and software solution.

A robot testing facility, a robotics research center, a base for renewable energy and a memorial park -- these are some of the plans the irradiated town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, has in mind for rebuilding after the triple reactor meltdown at the nearby Fukushima No. 1 power plant in March 2011. But to pursue those plans, the town needs funds -- a gigantic amount. Namie is hoping to cover its funding needs with central government grants. But the two sides are still negotiating whether the municipality must shoulder a certain amount. Also, there is no guarantee that the grants will continue beyond fiscal 2020, when the central government-designated reconstruction and revitalization period ends.