Fukushima: 4. Evacuation
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Dramas. Immersive storytelling from the BBC World Service. Previously on Fukushima. Does Tepco know if it was the core or the building which exploded? We don't know at this time, Prime Minister. Tell President Shibutsu I want him in my office in 20 minutes with every speck of information you have. The President and Chairman are still not here, sir. What the hell is going on over there?

We lose the Daiichi plant, then the Daini plant, then Tokai, then we lose Tokyo, then Honshu, then Japan as we know it. Yoshida-san! Yes, Matsui-san. You had no right to commence seawater injections. Prime Minister Kan says yes. You've just said yes. Your insubordination has been noted. You are to cease seawater injections immediately.

The most important question isn't if Unit 3 is going to explode, but how. If those fuel rod pools are compromised, Yoshi, it's over. We need to start sending people home. Fukushima, Episode 4. Late in the evening of Sunday, March 13th, 2011, a little over two days after the earthquake, the fuel rods in Unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant begin to melt.

The pressure in all three containment vessels remains dangerously high, almost double normal levels. Though plant manager Masao Yoshida has little choice but to continue venting steam from the reactors to release pressure, he does so in the full knowledge that a second explosion is all but a certainty, and that each time he vents, radiation is dispersed into the neighboring towns of Futaba, Name and Fukushima City.

Faced with the deteriorating situation, he issues a memo to all departments to begin sending younger staff and staff with young families home, replacing them with senior staff.

Seawater continues to be pumped into the reactors in order to cool them, but Yoshida is disappointed with the results. Though he and control room chief Toshio Shimada had carefully mapped out the sequence of pipes that the water would travel through to ensure none was wasted, Yoshida now begins to suspect an error in the calculations. Why isn't the temperature going down, Saito? It's supposed to be going down.

These numbers mean not enough water. Where is it going? Could it be boiling away? Not at these volumes. Salt raises the boiling point of water. I'm calling the control room. Toshio, nothing we're doing is working. Is there a leak in the pipe? You are going to have to send somebody. What's the radiation level? It's getting worse. I know you are. Takashi was talking about the isolation condenser on Unit 1. Are we sure it's operating?

Yes, check please. Let me know. The isolation condenser tanks of Unit 1 are located above the reactor and act as a secondary emergency cooling system in case of power failure. Hot steam from the core is cooled as it passes through tanks of cold water. When the earthquake hit, Control Room Chief Shimada ordered his men to activate the isolation condenser, but only intermittently, at 30-second intervals, to avoid cooling the reactor too quickly.

This task was performed manually by toggling the switch between 'on' signified by a green light and 'off' signified by a red. However, as no red or green lights are now visible due to the blackout, staff in the control room have no way of knowing if the isolation condenser is on or off, so are forced to consult the operating manual by torchlight.

Meanwhile, Shimada prepares to send another team into the bowels of Unit 3 to vent the reactor once more. I'm sorry, Suto-san, but what were they doing looking at a manual? It was a general electric reactor, Akiko-san. American made. And? But they didn't know how it worked? They knew how the reactor worked, but not everything.

I'm sorry? It was a turnkey project. What does that mean? It means the reactors were constructed by GE in the United States and delivered as a finished product. So all you have to do is turn the key, like a car. No training required? They were trained to operate it.

There's nothing about combustion engines in your driving test either, Akiko-san. No, but if you have a problem, you take it to a mechanic, a specialist. The manual was the mechanic. Look, Akiko-san, you have to separate what would have been good to know from what we should have known. That's just two ways of saying the same thing. It would have been good to know eating those berries could kill me, or...

I should have known those berries could kill me. Those two sentences have a completely different meaning. One is not my fault and the other is. Exactly. But one is obviously related to the other. You trip on a root in the forest because you didn't know the root was there. I understand. But you did choose...

choose to walk in the forest. And there are roots in forests. You can't absorb yourself of all responsibility because you didn't know that particular root was there. If your decision to do something is predicated on every conceivable negative outcome, you'd never do anything. You'd never even go to the forest. Oh, I think you'd like my father. The ends justify the means.

It's like children playing in a park. You can round all the edges and soften the floor, but at some point, something is going to happen that you didn't foresee. Do you close all children's parks? You're comparing nuclear power plants with children's parks. Venting team. We're ready, sir. No, Ito. I told you. You are going home. Osaki, take his place.

Shimada-san... Sir, I would like to stay. Out of the creche on the door. Do as you are told. You are going home. Sir, with respect, I insist. Yuji, you are 23. You have a baby.

The rules are there for a reason. Sir, I trained on Unit 3. There's only one pipe that could be leaking and I know where it is. That's not the job I've asked you to do. Please, sir. GE reactors were the subject of my dissertation. I know my way around down there. Osaki, you go in the next wave. Yes, sir. Thank you. One hour. Half an hour there, half an hour back. Yes, sir. And Ito.

I don't care how close you are to that valve. I don't care if you can reach out and touch it. You go over 30 minutes, you head back.

Shimada's team successfully complete the venting of Unit 3, but as with Unit 1, the oxygen and hydrogen in the containment building react and ignite, and at 11:01 on the morning of Monday 14th March, the plant is rocked by a second massive explosion, which blows the roof off Unit 3, sending a plume of dark smoke several hundred metres into the air.

Prime Minister Khan is at the nuclear emergency headquarters as the news of the explosion begins to filter in. Yoshida-san, has there been an increase in radiation? Unit 3 is giving off radiation, yes. But we already know it is not consistent with core damage. The plume, it seems vertical. Has there been any damage to Unit 4? We don't think so, sir. We're checking. Why was the plume black? Unit 1's plume was white.

There are a number of factors that could explain that, Prime Minister. Composition of materials in the blast vicinity, perhaps. But the good news is, it's vertical. And it's not the core.

I need as much information as possible about radiation levels and spread. Matsui-san. Yes, Prime Minister. Why do I have the feeling I don't know half of what I need to know about radiation? The American Embassy has just told U.S. nationals to evacuate 100 kilometers. We're still at 20. I'm not just going to blindly follow them. Sir, with respect... You understand, Matsui-san.

If I keep telling everybody to evacuate 10, then 20, then 30 kilometers, I'm essentially evacuating the same people three or four times on top of the people in the new radius.

Do you realize the resources it wastes? Prime Minister... I'm evacuating evacuation centers. The local mayors have buses just showing up at random locations and picking up whoever's there. The mayor of Namie just set his own radius. Sir, with respect, the Nuclear Preparedness Act stipulates that the evacuation of citizens does not fall within TEPCO's... Don't you dare tell me this is not TEPCO's business.

It's your power station. What I do here depends on the information I get from you. Do your job. Give me numbers. Meanwhile, in the control room, the staff have learned from the operating manual that the method of establishing whether or not the isolation condenser is running is to check if steam is being released from the two small vents on the outside of the containment building, commonly named the pig nose.

Shimada immediately dispatches staff to perform a visual check of the pygnos, and they return reporting "light steam". Shimada relays this information to Yoshida, who is satisfied that the isolation condenser is indeed running. The matter is put to rest.

I read about the isolation condenser somewhere, or it might have been a YouTube video. They got this wrong too. Try to curb your righteousness, Akiko-san. Hindsight is a defective lens because it comes from a set of assumptions that only become available after the fact. There are a number of things the Prime Minister, the power company, and even Yoshida just simply didn't know.

Now, it's true that there was a paragraph in the manual that said if steam could be seen coming out of the pig nose, then the isolation condenser was functioning. The man Shimada sent outside reported light steam, so they assumed it was. But it wasn't, was it? No.

The steam the manual was referring to is usually as thick as smoke and billows hundreds of meters into the sky. The faint steam they saw was discharged from an idle condenser. How can they not know that? Unless you've been in that situation before, you can't possibly know.

Take the seawater injections. Remember how Yoshida and Shimada had calculated the route the water would take through the pipes without wasting a drop? And how Yoshida suspected there was a crack because half the water was not reaching the reactor? Yes. It wasn't a crack. It was a small pipe about halfway along that route that went, uh, uh, somewhere. I can't remember.

Now, normally the valve on that pipe was closed, but it had been designed to open in case of a rupture in the power supply, which meant water was being diverted up this pipe, and only 60% of it was actually reaching the reactors.

Someone should have known that. That's my point. Yes, but to know it, you would have to apply an incalculable number of variables into your simulations based on an unprecedented chain of events. Why do you think progress always comes at the price of terrible tragedy? And that's supposed to comfort the 180,000 people who had to evacuate? Good.

Let's take the evacuations. Do you believe it was wrong to evacuate the people who lived in the vicinity of the plant while one of the world's worst nuclear disasters was unfolding? No. Can you conceive of any prime minister of any stripe saying, leave them where they are? No. I'm not trying to trick you, Akiko-san. I'm just asking you to be consistent in your arguments.

You want everyone to have made the best choice. I'm saying sometimes you don't know what the best choice is until it's too late to make it. So you have to make the best one you can in the moment.

You were the one who said Shimizu could be blamed for not knowing there was an earthquake. Because the variables had been presented to him. If someone shows you a presentation about the route in the forest and tells you it's directly in your path in ten meters and you still trip over it, you brought that on yourself.

All I'm asking is that you try to put yourself in the moment, Akiko-san. Try to extend a little empathy. Why can't you do that? Because of progress having to come at the price of tragedy and I'm sick of the wrong people paying that price. Don't just turn a key, Suto-san. Nuclear energy is not a car and power stations are not playgrounds.

An addictive children's swing doesn't lay waste to hundreds of square kilometres of land. A loose seesaw doesn't tear people from their homes. And a faulty climbing frame doesn't result in 2,352 suicides.

what you don't realize is that your argument one i can only assume you didn't make to prime minister naoto kan or perhaps you did perhaps that's why he threw you out of his think tank what you don't realize is that your argument isn't so different from mine

You say if you thought of every negative outcome, no reactors would ever get made, as if thinking of negative outcomes is somehow counterproductive. And I say if you actually thought of every negative outcome, no reactors would ever get made. You see the difference?

And if your neighbour's son is going to throw himself off a roof while Shimizu becomes director of Fuji Oil, or that lady in the news from Fukushima City is going to set herself on fire in her temporary housing while Katsumata gets a seat on the board of some company, I am perfectly comfortable with altering my levels of empathy to fit. I thought you might really have something to say.

But you're just a typical man to the bitter end, aren't you? Children's parks. Is there anything you haven't rationalized? Is there one decision you can't explain away? Or is that what you spent your time on your own doing? Regardless of how your dissertation turns out, Akiko-san, I think you've done well to choose journalism.

Throughout the day of March 14th, Yoshida continues in his efforts to vent and cool the reactors. Attempts to restore power to the plant repeatedly fail. He has not slept in nearly four days.

Aware that his options are diminishing by the hour, once again he turns his attention to the safety of his staff. Saito? Yes, Yoshi? How many people stay on the plant? The whole plant? 200? We have two priorities. Power and water. We don't need 200 people for that. That's true. Let's get it down as close to 50 as we can. OK. We're going to need buses out front. Yes, Yoshi.

Can I have everyone's attention please? You have all worked extremely hard. Many of you have not slept or eaten. I am ashamed to admit that I promised my wife a diet. I've had a bar of chocolate. But I promised her I would quit smoking 10 years ago. So the last few days have been the most terrible imaginable for us, for Japan. And it's easy to forget there's been a devastating earthquake

A tsunami. You've accepted being cut off from news of your families, your loved ones. I know you're worried. The situation here could get worse in the days to come. If it does, it'll be through no fault of yours. You have performed your tasks with diligence and honour. But if the situation improves, the dedication you have shown here will be the reason why.

But there's little more for many of you to do, and I can no longer in good conscience hold you here. The fate of this plant is now in the hands of a very few, perhaps 50 on this entire facility. Our job is clear: to cool the reactors and restore power. Evaluate your position only. For those who stay, you know, I can't tell you that you won't be risking your life. You will.

But I can tell you that you'll be risking your life to save Japan. For the rest of you, it is time to be with your families and go with my profound humility and my immeasurable gratitude. Thank you. There's really no other way to describe it.

It wasn't said, but there was something in the eyes of my colleagues and no doubt in mine that this was perhaps a lost cause. Is that why Tepco ordered the plant to be abandoned? At last we have arrived. I've been expecting the question all evening. Are you still recording? But I'm not sure my answer is going to satisfy you, Akiko-san.

It didn't satisfy Prime Minister Naoto Kan. Is it true? I don't know. But I can tell you what I do know. Will that help?

On March 14th, Prime Minister Khan receives word that representatives from TEPCO have been leaving messages all morning requesting a meeting. He learns that the energy company have been discussing the possibility of abandoning the Daiichi plant. Incensed, he summons the TEPCO president to his office at 4pm.

Our current plan, Prime Minister, is that the rolling blackouts will be initiated sector by sector. This grid map has divided the area of the... This is what you've been calling all day about. Blackouts. Prime Minister. Listen to me very carefully, Shimizu-san. TEPCO will not abandon that plant.

that you can even suggest such a thing brings shame on you and your company. Do you have any idea what you are suggesting? I'm sorry, sir. Are you not ashamed? Sir, forgive me, but you misunderstood me. Oh, I misunderstood you. Please, go ahead. Sir, please. I only meant a strategic withdrawal. I'm told the word you used was abandonment.

What exactly does abandon mean at TEPCO? Perhaps we have different dictionaries as well as everything else. No, sir. I meant leaving behind a core team. Perhaps 50 or so. So why all the cores? You don't need my permission to send low-level employees home.

i'm in the middle of ordering the evacuation of two hundred thousand people i am asking them to abandon their homes and i can promise you that when i say abandon it doesn't mean leaving a few people behind do you understand me sir

Yes, Prime Minister. This has gone far enough. I am coming to Tepco in the morning, six o'clock. I want everybody in the room to hear what I have to say. And my special advisor will be staying behind when I leave. That is all. When did this happen? Earlier today. Apparently, the Prime Minister told him to be busy. Things are falling apart. Yoshida-san, this is head office.

Yes, Matsui-san. It is 9 o'clock. We request your permission to retire. Would you please stop asking me that? You want me to read your story? You want to go to bed. Go to bed. Before we go, when can we tell people venting will start on Unit 2? We will vent when we are ready.

We're studying the issue now. We don't want another explosion. Our experts suggest there's a very slim chance of another explosion. Please send some men. They are not your men. Please stop answering back, Yoshida-san. We are as concerned as you. An hour. Good.

Would you like a status update before you retire? Yes. Our current status is Unit 1 and 3 have suffered hydrogen explosions. And we don't know how bad the damage is to the reactor. But the molten cesium is probably falling to the bottom of the vessel in Number 1 as we speak. The water reached top of active fuel in Unit 3 several hours ago. And the emergency cooling system in Unit 2 has failed.

The seawater pumping is not as effective as we hoped. We suspect there may be a leak somewhere. Our priority is preventing an explosion in Unit 4, which is idle, but contains our spent fuel rod pools. Any breaching those would start a chain of events that would be impossible to contain. There's your story. Sweet dreams.

Why does this always happen on my shift? How many of us left? 68. And that's as low as we can go? Yes. So that's it. That's the final number. That's the final number. Is this where I'm supposed to say, it's been a privilege working with you? We should pose for a photo. I think the guys in the control room did. That doesn't surprise me. Have you spoken to Mio? No.

I texted her. Good. Where is she? In an evacuation centre in Raha. Is Mitsui with her? No, she's in Osaka. At university? Third year. That's good. I'm having trouble with mine. I thought you had boys. No, my text. What does one say? I don't even know if she got it. I think your friend Prime Minister is screwing up this evacuation completely. He's not so bad, you know.

I was at a party last year with Yoko. There was an American there. He was very loud. He said something interesting, though. He said, how did you let us get away with inventing the iPod? Japan was a gold standard in portable music. The Walkman, the Discman. Then you disappeared. He's not wrong. Maybe Prime Minister Kan is right. Maybe a change isn't such a bad thing. We are out of crackers. There's more in that reserve drawer.

I'm going for a cigarette. Just have one here. Not yet. This isn't over, Saito. Not by a long way. In the next episode of Fukushima... The radiation was being blown directly at us, and you knew that? I assure you that I personally did not know that. Of course you say that. You are a politician. Blah!

That is only your hand, Prime Minister! There is an industrial pump currently docked at Otsu, bound for Vietnam. I have ordered this pump to be diverted to Fukushima and they tell me you have sent them release documentation by post? Have you no pigeons left? At war, an invisible enemy is trying to occupy Japan. I'm sorry, I can't talk now, Prime Minister. We're in a state of emergency here. What's happening? Explosion in...

The director is Sasha Yevtushenko and the producer is Toby Swift.

Fukushima, from the BBC World Service, is a BBC Audio production.