Meltdown at Fukushima | Collapse | 3

Against The Odds

Wondery

Cassie De Pecol, History, Society & Culture, Dolby, Mike Corey, Dolby Atmos, Atmos

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Now contending with multiple damaged reactors, engineers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan hatch a series of increasingly desperate plans to prevent a total meltdown. But several explosions and the loss of vital cooling pumps bring the entire plant to the brink of chaos. As the crisis worsens, it becomes clear that the very future of Japan is at stake.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to against the odds at free on Amazon music. Download the app today.
0:14.9	Ikul, Izawa and his team of engineers huddle around a table pouring over blueprints of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
0:22.8	It's been 24 hours since a massive earthquake and tsunami struck the plant.
0:27.4	Izawa's mood is grim.
0:30.8	The tsunami knocked out power to the systems that keep the reactors cool.
0:35.5	The water inside those systems has been boiling into steam, causing dangerous pressure to build.
0:41.5	A few hours ago, Izawa sent two teams of engineers into reactor building one.
0:47.1	They were supposed to open two vents, which would release that pressure.
0:50.9	The first team succeeded in opening one of the vents, but as the second team got closer to the other vent,
0:56.8	the radiation levels around them were off the charts.
1:00.4	And they had to turn back.
1:02.8	Ever since then, Izawa and his engineers have been racking their brains for another way to lower the pressure in the reactor.
1:10.3	Izawa rubs his eyes and exhaustion. He's running out of ideas.
1:15.2	Then he hears a voice behind him.
1:17.7	Let me go. I know exactly where that valve on the basement is.
1:21.4	He turns to see one of the younger engineers, a man named Kazuhiro. Izawa's size.
1:27.7	The radiation is too intense. Even three minutes in there could be lethal.
1:31.7	I can do it in two. I used to run track.
1:34.9	Izawa stares at him in disbelief.
1:37.4	Even if Kazuhiro is a fast runner, sending him into that building would be insane.
1:43.5	What if it stuck? If it stuck, I'll dash back. And I won't go alone. Sato agreed to come.
1:49.4	Sato is another young engineer on the team who went to school with Kazuhiro.
	...

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