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The NRC today has made available about 3,000 pages of
transcribed conversations
from the agency’s emergency operations center representing much of our
communications over the first 10 days of the Fukushima reactor crisis in
Japan in March 2011.
These
documents provide a rare look inside the workings of the agency’s
crisis center as the men and women of the NRC worked 24/7 to find ways
to help Americans in Japan, the Japanese government and the firm that
owns the Fukushima reactors.
It
is up close and personal, gritty and unvarnished. It lays out the very
human stories of staffers working with little rest, talking to
counterparts half a world away while at the same time conversing with
other agencies in the executive branch, our armed forces and the
domestic nuclear industry.
This is a historical record of what went down in those early days.
As you read these transcripts – partially redacted and produced at substantial cost over nine months in response to
Freedom of Information Act requests
-- you’ll see that the first days were very hectic. There wasn’t a lot
of information. There was confusion and communication problems.
But
the NRC staff quickly settled into a rhythm after the first alert –
long hours, little rest, bad food – and important handoffs between
shifts, regular communications with our teams in Japan, and in time
working directly with the Japanese and TEPCO, the plant owner. And there
was steady communication with the American public and the news media.
In fact, this blog became a primary communications tool and readership
greatly exceeded our expectations.
The
situation appears stable now, but it was far from it in the early days
as staff experts, under the direction of Chairman Jaczko, made tough and
sometimes controversial recommendations.
Today, the NRC is working to implement
lessons our experts have culled from what happened at Fukushima.
We invite you to read these
transcripts to see an agency hard at work in the name of safety.
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