Japan feared 'demonic chain reaction' at reactor, report says [View all]

[jpak]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-earthquake-nuclear-20120229,0,3974700.story?track=lat-pick

Reporting from Seoul— A new report vividly portrays the Japanese government's fears in the first hours and days after the March 11, 2011, tsunami overran a coastal nuclear power plant, including concerns that officials might have to evacuate Tokyo.

The government was afraid that a "demonic chain reaction" would ensue after the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, even as it assured the public that all was under control, according to the report by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, a private policy group.

At one point, advisors to then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan began referring to a worst-case scenario that would not only force the evacuation of tens of millions of Tokyo residents, but could also cause widespread environmental damage across Japan, the report says. At the same time, Kan's staff continued to assure the Japanese public and the international community that the situation was under control.

When the nuclear plant was struck by a wall of water after an earthquake hit northeastern Japan on the afternoon of March 11, Kan ordered workers to remain at the devastated facility, fearing that thousands of spent fuel rods stored at a damaged reactor would melt and spew radiation after a hydrogen explosion at an adjacent reactor, the report says.

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