My impression of the PBS Frontline report was that it provided a good update and overview of this nuclear disaster, and pointed out how close it came to becoming much worse. At one point TEPCO evidently was ready to evacuate all its staff from the site and simply let whatever was going to happen, happen. They were over-ruled by the Prime Minister.

The accident itself was way beyond the script of what was thought to be a possible accident, which is still true of several nuclear plants here in the States if a similar accident happened here.

Fukushima Staff had no options other than to manually vent steam from the reactor units, and valuable time was lost as they desperately tried to do that. It is a miracle that no staff members have yet died from radiation exposure, but I would expect that to change over time. You can also bet that the "temporary help" that was mobilized will not be followed up on.

Several former staff workers were willing to put a human face on who was trying to deal with this unfolding disaster. There were some very brave people.

It will be at least ten years before they will be able to remove damaged nuclear fuel from the reactors.

And hundreds of square miles to the northeast of the nuclear complex will be uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.

At one point, authorities were seriously considering the evacuation of Tokyo.

Charley Noble