How first 24 hours shaped Japan's nuclear crisis

Finally some straight forward honest reports. Thank you.

One of the most detailed reports I have read so far.

I can imagine the chaos given the typical Japanese decision making process (i.e. people more afraid of making a mistake and being seen as incompetent, rather than actually making a decision)...

A very well written article indeed. Kudos to the writers.

Seems like the government were trying their hardest to attack the problem head on - perhaps they (especially, it seems, Kan) have been unfairly slammed by many as being disorganised and confused? If this report is accurate, TEPCO should be dealing with 100% of the blame and not 50%!

@yildiray:

That's precisely what I thought. I think Kan is probably the straightest shooter Japanese politics has seen for a looong time. People slam him for being indecisive, but I really do think that he tried to get to grips with this situation early on. The crisis was made worse by TEPCO, not by Kan. He deserves much higher popularity ratings, let's hope this article gets translated.

I agre with everyone here. Good article. Can thus be sent to Kan by chance?

Really informative, TEPCO's Golden Goose. I can only shake my head, too deep. I can't even imagine having to go through something like this first hand. I have a new appreciation for the disaster at the NPP and the workers who had to be not just alittle nervous in trying to stem off the nightmare happening around them and they DID NOT RUN and PM Kan went there into the thick of it.

I read this article on Japan Times. All media publish the same things.

Fukushima Daiichi was built right next to the biggest source of water on the planet—the Pacific Ocean. Pumping water out of the ocean is an absolute last resort, however. The reactors would never be usable again.

This is likely the single biggest problem with Fukushima, F%$#ing tepco instead of trying to cool/shut down the nukes tried to SALVAGE THEIR INVESTMENT, collosal negligence of the highest order!

Clearly some tepco people need to be jailed for life & ALL assets seized & turned over to the state.

We have all witnessed an obscene amount of incompetence in govt & industry, and sadly as of now it looks unlikely to be fixed, changed. I am serously doubting Japan will learn much of anything from this...........

The plant was pulled apart by the earthquake, things were going very badly wrong BEFORE the tsunami hit. That is why nuclear power HERE is fatally flawed.

Cracking article!

Well researched and well written article! Kudos to Eric Talmadge and Mari Yamaguchi.