Smithsonian documentary series
Kenji Kushida
I was one of the interviewees in this Smithsonian documentary series about major disasters -- this episode was about the Fukushima nuclear accident.
I've written about the accident for some academic publications, and I'm still working on my objective non-fiction account that is a terrifying page-turner, which I got distracted from for several years, but I'm glad some of what I've done through the deep dives was useful.
My analyses is actually a bit different than the documentary -- I'm ideologically neutral about nuclear power, and I don't blame the government as hard as the narration and some other analysts.
I love how these things always choose the least flattering photos, but ironically, the day before I got hit by a big grad student's shoulder playing soccer so my cheek was swollen and I couldn't enunciate as well as I wanted to. Given the topic, it was a most appropriate time to appear a bit battered up though...
I have the deepest respect to everyone on the front lines at the plant who battled sleeplessly for more than a week to try to mitigate the disaster.
Link to the Smithsonian documentary series: https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/episodes/12wq3e/ten-steps-to-disaster-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-season-2-ep-7
