Masao Yoshida Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant March 2008 Masao Yoshida grumbled as he sat down in the conference room The square-jawed plant manager ran the sprawling seaside Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant The plant was located on the northeastern coast of the main island of Japan Honshu The workers at Fukushima Dai-Ichi and 53 other nuclear plants worked hard to provide 30 percent of Japan’s power Yoshida had lots of work to do and didn’t appreciate being hastily called into a meeting in the middle of the day He joined a group of serious quiet men in their 50s and 60s around a conference table and waited for the meeting to begin Some wore tailored business suits Others wore the company’s crisp blue jumpsuits Yoshida soon learned the reason for the meeting an internal group of scientists had released a new report in which they argued that Fukushima Dai-Ichi needed better protection against enormous ocean waves called tsunamis A giant earthquake they warned could trigger a tsunami
that could overwhelm the plant This news was irritating but not altogether surprising The plant had already been rebuilt once to boost its tsunami protection A thick concrete seawall blocked the plant from the ocean’s tall waves When Fukushima Dai-Ichi was built this wall stood about 10 feet tall In 2002 scientists warned that it was too short Fukushima leadership heeded the warning and rebuilt it to stand nearly 19 feet tall But now Yoshida saw this new report was advising that the wall needed to be rebuilt again to a staggering height of almost 50 feet It wasn’t that Yoshida was unafraid of tsunamis Far from it He and the other managers present that day understood that tsunamis were a constant threat As they drove into work some had even passed tsunami markers Now as Yoshida and his colleagues took in the report’s details they began to discuss the new information Is this pressing one asked How promptly should we take this up asked another The conversation continued like this for a short time until the group eventually agreed to review the matter further at a later date
Yoshida sighed as he stood up to leave the meeting He wasn’t worried It certainly didn’t seem likely to him that a 50-foot tsunami would happen anytime soon Fukushima Dai-Ichi 2007
1 AN EARTHQUAKE STRIKES Employees at Fukushima Dai-Ichi oversee the process of loading fuel into nuclear reactor 3
