Mar 18 Rating Nuclear Accidents and Incidents: Which Were the Worst? By Talea Miller With three reactors having at least partial meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan, the country raised the alert level from four to five on a seven-point international scale for atomic incidents Friday. The International Atomic Energy Agency… Continue reading
Mar 17 Get to Know Tepco: Japan’s Biggest Power Company By News Desk As Japan's nuclear crisis continues to unfold, you've probably heard mention of Tokyo Electric Power Company, the energy giant who owns the troubled Fukushima plant. Known as Tepco, the company was founded in 1951 as Japan looked to rebuild its… Continue reading
Mar 17 View From Tokyo: Japanese Try to Go on With Daily Life ‘as Best They Can’ By Larisa Epatko In Japan, foreign governments are evacuating their citizens from the area of the Fukushima nuclear plant, as the Japanese military works to douse the facility with tons of water to prevent a nuclear reactor meltdown. Continue reading
Mar 17 China Health Minister on Japan Crisis: ‘Uncertainties’ Loom on Radiation Risk The PBS NewsHour has a reporting team in China this week, working on health, economy and other stories for a series you'll see in coming weeks. But given the events in Japan, they are also monitoring the Chinese reaction to… Continue reading
Mar 16 Workers Return to Japan Nuclear Plant After Radiation Spike By News Desk 6:50 p.m. ET | Japanese Quake Survivors Speak Out on Nuclear Crisis Also, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Director Gregory Jaczko testified on Capitol Hill Wednesday and spoke of concerns about the events in Japan, particularly around the problems plaguing Fukushima's… Continue reading
Mar 16 The ‘Fukushima 50’: Nuclear Workers Stay Behind to Brave Plant’s Woes By Lea Winerman As the nuclear crisis continued in Japan Wednesday, the world's attention turned to small corps of thus far anonymous workers who make up the last line of defense against a nuclear catastrophe at the earthquake and tsunami-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. Continue reading
Mar 16 Japan Tsunami Response Moves from Rescue to Relief By Talea Miller Bitterly cold, snowy weather made relief efforts in northeast Japan extremely difficult Wednesday, said Kirsten Mildren, Asia regional advocacy officer for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. She spoke with the NewsHour from Tokyo, where a U.N. Continue reading
Mar 16 Explosion, Fire at Nuclear Plant Trigger Radiation Fears in Quake’s Aftermath By News Desk 8:20 a.m. ET Damage to the second reactor is shown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in this image released by Digital Globe. Click to view larger. 6:15 p.m. ET Another fire has broken out at the Fukushima… Continue reading
Mar 15 Mechanics of a Nuclear Meltdown Explained By Jenny Marder After a powerful explosion on Tuesday, Japanese workers are still struggling to regain control of an earthquake and tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant amid worsening fears of a full meltdown. Which raises the questions: What exactly is a nuclear meltdown? And… Continue reading
Mar 15 Watch In Tokyo and Japan’s Northeast, Victims Cope With Compound Crises As Japan struggles to control its damaged nuclear reactors, victims of the earthquake and tsunami in the northeastern part of the country struggle to cope with the disasters. Sarah Smith, Jon Snow and Angus Walker of Independent Television News report… Continue watching