You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

Hello, Jeff from Feel Here,

steering the great ship shortwave,

and I'm joined today by a special guest,

Cat Lawnstorf. Hi, Cat.

Hey there. So, Cat, we brought you on the show today

because you were present at a big reopening last year.

That's right. I wanted above the Frey Fellowship

to visit the evacuated villages and towns

around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan,

where you might remember there were a series of meltdowns

after a tsunami hit it in 2011.

Yes, I remember very well.

Yeah, and I was there just at the start of the pandemic

before all the lockdowns,

as one of the towns reopened to the public last spring.

It was this big scene, a big gate was unlocked and pulled back.

I'm going to step foot in the town of Tava,

as it's officially open into what looks like a pretty

quaint little city street, little buildings and shops.

Of course, no one lives here, so it's a deserted city street

that we're walking down.

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