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On March 11th 3011, one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded sent a five-storey tsunami crashing into Japan''s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. It triggered a triple meltdown, displacing over 100,000 residents, and precipitated a seemingly endless ecological calamity. MELTDOWN AT FUKUSHIMA will also be a universal cautionary tale about humanity''s refusal to invest in the prevention of foreseeable disasters, our increasing overreliance on technology, and our deadly penchant for politicking during times of crisis-all of which come at a grave cost to human life, societal health, and environmental stability. Rich in novelistic propulsion and detail, MELTDOWN AT FUKUSHIMA closely follows four major characters: Masao Yoshida, the plant manager, who struggled to regain control over Fukushima as the reactors overheated and remained at the helm while others fled, later dying of cancer; Naoto Kan, the pugnacious prime minister who faced his nation''s worst crisis since World War Two; Katsutaka Idokawa, the mayor of one of the plant''s host towns, who led a brave and hasty evacuation of his people as they were already reeling from the massive earthquake and deadly tsunami; Shinzo Kimura, a government scientist who went rogue during the disaster and later defied the government again by empowering citizens in affected areas to protect themselves. Each of these characters - along with a richly populated supporting cast - offers a different window into the tragedy and its long-lasting effects for Japan and the world. The cumulative result is a page-turning disaster narrative on an unimaginable scale.
